Telia is working together with Ericsson and Intel to deploy the first public 5G live network use cases in Europe.

The activity includes a high-speed 5G connection to a commercial passenger cruise ship delivering internet connectivity to its passengers while in port, and an industrial use case featuring a construction excavator remotely controlled with a live 5G network. This is an important milestone for all three partners in the global 5G roadmap, making it possible to bring live 5G services in Tallinn and Stockholm in 2018, which are two of the most digitalised cities on the planet.

Gabriela Styf Sjöman, global head of networks at Telia, says: “We want to be early with 5G and will bring it to life in Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinki in 2018. We work together with our partners in the whole ecosystem to explore the powerful effect it is going to have for our customers and in society. It’s not only about building a new network but it’s also about building a new way of thinking and perceiving what a mobile network can be and can do. High speed, low latency, guaranteed capacity and truly mobile is going to push the boundaries of digitalisation and we want to be there pushing it together with our partners.”

As this publication reported earlier this month, two Italian cities are also in the queue to get their share of 5G. This will be made possible by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), in partnership with Fastweb and Huawei, who will soon start testing 5G in Bari and Matera. The first use case scenarios are provisionally set for June 2018, with three quarters of the area set to be covered by the end of the year and full coverage for both cities by the end of 2019.