Telenor deploys first commercial 5G network in Norway
On March 13th, Telenor Norway announced the commercial launch of a 5G network in nine towns and cities in Norway, following a 5G trial that began in Kongsberg in November 2018. Ericsson is Telenor’s 5G base station supplier.
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“We are happy to announce that we have chosen Ericsson to start building the future 5G radio network in Norway, and I am confident we now are perfectly positioned to be in the forefront of the country’s network modernisation. As the first mobile operator on 5G in Scandinavia, Telenor will ramp up the roll out of 5G to our customers in Norway in 2020. The full modernisation of the mobile network in Norway is an ambitious undertaking, and something we are excited to get started on,” says Petter-Børre Furberg, CEO of Telenor Norway.
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There are 38 5G base stations in Trondheim- Norway’s tech capital. The other 5G locations are Elverum, Askvoll, Svalbard, Kvitfjell, Heroya, Froya, and limited developments in the centres of Bodo and of Oslo, with Fornebu airport also served. Telenor will extend 5G in Oslo and open 5G networks in Bergen, Stavanger and Sandnes during 2020. In 2021, the operator will upgrade almost 2,000 base stations, rising to 8,500 over the next four to five years (see below for details).
“Telenor is proud to be the first mobile operator to launch a commercial 5G network in Norway, as we have worked tirelessly to stay at the forefront of the 5G development,” said Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group. “By bringing Norway into a new technological age, today’s opening marks another milestone in Telenor’s 165-year-long history. We expect 5G to be the key driver of transformation in this decade, and we are very much looking forward to continuing the roll-out of 5G to our customers.”
“Norway has some of the world’s fastest mobile networks, and with 5G, they become faster and even more reliable,” said Linda Hofstad Helleland, Norway’s Minister of Regional Development and Digitalisation. “Given the current situation in Norway, we see how important the digital infrastructure is for those quarantined and those working from home. The new 5G network will provide better mobile coverage and gradually better access to broadband across the country, which will reduce the vulnerability of an increasingly digitised society.”
“This is a day we have been looking forward to for a long time,” said Petter-Børre Furberg, CEO of Telenor Norway. “We launched our first 5G pilot as early as 2018, and since then we have been experimenting and exploring, trying to learn as much as we possibly can. Today, we are not only opening our 5G network in the city of Trondheim, we are also opening the very first commercial 5G network in Norway. In addition, we are making 5G commercially available in all locations where we, until now, have been running tests. As of today, Telenor customers with a 5G device will at these locations be able to connect to the mobile network of the future.”
Telenor said it will upgrade 8,500 base stations over the next few years. It remains to be seen how much of that work will be able to be done over the next few months, due to the coranavirus clamp downs.
“We have worked hard to become the first mobile operator in Norway to open the 5G network, and are now fully focused on our continued plans. During 2021, we will upgrade close to 2,000 base stations, while a total of 8,500 base stations will be upgraded within the next four to five years,” Furberg concluded.
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Telenor Norway and 5G:
- Telenor opened Scandinavia’s first 5G pilot in Kongsberg on 8 November 2018.
- Telenor launched Scandinavia’s largest 5G pilot in Elverum on September 26, 2019. In addition, Telenor announced pilots in nine further locations across the country and conducted Norway’s first video call over 5G.
- Telenor launched the world’s northernmost 5G pilot on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
- Telenor’s 5G network was commercially launched on 13 March 2020. Telenor customers with a 5G device can now connect to the next generation mobile network in nine different locations in Norway.
- Telenor will start development of 5G in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Sandnes. The new mobile network will open in these cities during 2020.
- Telenor builds 5G in Trondheim in collaboration with Ericsson.
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Ericsson, Telenor expand 5G partnership with core network deal
Norwegian telecom network provider Telenor on Friday said that Ericsson is transforming its core network and, going forward, will modernize the operator’s entire Radio Access Network (RAN) network.
The modernization of Telenor Norway’s network will give consumers and businesses access to products and services that have never before been available.
“5G will enable new services and use cases for people, businesses, and society at large from smartphones to robots on the factory floor. With its unique ecosystem, advanced universities and high-tech companies, Trondheim is the perfect location to launch 5G services with unprecedented speed and flexibility to empower innovation and a variety of use cases. But this is just the beginning and we are excited to soon bring 5G to the rest of Norway,” Jenny Lindqvist, Head of Northern & Central Europe, Ericsson, said in a joint statment.
Petter-Børre Furberg, CEO, Telenor Norway, said that the telco is perfectly positioned to be at the forefront of the country’s network modernization. “When selecting the vendor for the RAN, we considered important factors like technical quality, ability to innovate and modernize the network, and commercial terms and conditions, as well as carrying out an extensive security evaluation. The full modernization of the mobile network in Norway is an ambitious undertaking and something we’re excited to carry on with Ericsson,” he added.
https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/ericsson-telenor-expand-5g-partnership-with-core-network-deal/74654022
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