Telefonica turns cities into ‘living laboratories’ for 5G

Source: Telefonica turns cities into ‘living laboratories’ for 5G | ITProPortal

Telefonica has announced a major new project to help it test out 5G technology.

The Spanish telecoms operator has revealed it will be turning two Spanish cities, Segovia and Talavera de la Reina, into ‘living laboratories’ for testing its next-generation networks.

The company’s partners on the project are Nokia and Ericsson, and the project itself is planned to run from 2018 to 2020. Initial 5G capacity, deploying a new network, and developing use cases are among the main objectives.

José Antonio López, Chairman of Ericsson España, said Spanish tourism is one of the fields that has a lot to gain with the successful implementation of 5G.

“5G technology will have an enormous impact on the user experience and the digital transformation of our cities and industries. Ericsson is already working with more than 35 partners throughout the world to develop use cases to prepare the connected cities of the future,” he said.

“The most important ones in Spain are related to tourism, which we have worked on with FITUR and which we are currently demonstrating. One of the key aims of this project, in which we are pleased to cooperate with Telefónica and the City Council of Talavera de la Reina, will be to promote tourism, demonstrating 5G’s contribution to economic growth and the benefits Spaniards will enjoy as a result.”

5G is a technology allowing mobile internet to reach speeds of up to 10Gbps, lowering latency in the process. This will improve things like video calling on the go, but will also make drastic improvements to smart cars and the Internet of Things.