Preparing for 5G launch in Norway

(Barcelona, 28 February 2017) Telenor is joining forces with Huawei to become the first to offer a fifth generation mobile network (5G) in Norway.

The agreement between Huawei and Telenor was signed during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

‘Huawei has a significant position, grasp of technology and insight into 5G that we look forward to making use of in the coming years. Telenor and Huawei already collaborate in relation to the standardisation of 5G, and Telenor promises to be the first to offer 5G in Norway,’ says Magnus Zetterberg, CTO at Telenor Norway.

New areas of application and better experiences
5G will provide customers with brand new user experiences that they have never seen before. In addition to being a platform for the mobile network, 5G will also be used for intelligent traffic control and connecting everything from your car to smart street lighting to the Internet.

‘5G will become incredibly important in multiple areas of society. For instance, the health service needs far more network connected aids to be able to provide the services required in local communities. Another example is automated factories with robots and people in production premises,’ says Zetterberg.

Fastest in Norway
‘5G will be a revolutionary technology shift that will form the very foundations of all digital infrastructure in the future. The capacity of 5G is tremendous and can be compared to an eight-lane motorway with a 1000 km/h speed limit. Devices within coverage areas will achieve speeds of between 1 and 10 Gbps,’ explains Zetterberg.

By comparison, Telenor customers experienced average speeds of 52.91 mbits/s during the fourth quarter of 2016, which was by far the fastest coverage available in Norway.

5G testing during 2017
Telenor will be starting 5G testing during the course of 2017. A launch of the network on commercial terms will potentially be possible as soon as 2020.

‘Through a range of pilots and field testing, 5G technology will be seriously tested during 2017. The ambition is to get significantly closer to launching a network so that 5G is available to Norwegians nationwide,’ says Bjørn Amundsen, Head of Coverage.

For further information, please contact:
Bjørn Amundsen, Director of Coverage at Telenor.
Tel: 900 21 000, email: bjorn.amundsen@telenor.com 

Anders Krokan, PR Manager at Telenor Norway
Tel.: 952 09 037, email: anders.krokan@telenor.com