Slovak Telekom to launch commercial 5G with Ericsson

Ericsson has been selected by Slovak Telekom to deliver its 5G Radio Access Network and switch on 5G commercial services as of December 10 covering large areas of Bratislava, capital city of Slovakia.

Slovak Telekom will use Ericsson Radio System products and solutions boost its B2C and B2B business offerings quickly and efficiently. This includes Ericsson’s Ericsson Spectrum Sharing solution, which will enable Slovak Telekom to roll out 5G across the country in a flexible way, facilitating a faster and smoother 5G adoption.

In addition to the commercial 5G launch, there is also a plan to set up Slovakia’s first campus network (dedicated network), which will bring with it innovations in the field of industrial automation. The 5G-enabled private network will create new opportunities for the digitalization of Slovakia.

Branimir Marič, CTIO, Slovak Telekom, says: “We have launched the first phase of commercial 5G network in Bratislava and we would like to continue with several activities in the future. From the position of technology leader, we bring not only 5G network for many customers in our capital, but also the promise to build the first campus network with Ericsson for CEIT in Žilina which can bring up many new use cases. We believe that 5G is our gate to Industry 4.0 and we can push forward several areas of Slovak industry.”

Jenny Lindqvist, Head of Northern & Central Europe, Ericsson, says: “5G opens up huge opportunities for national infrastructure and economy in Slovakia. We are very pleased that Slovak Telekom decided to bolster our collaboration and choose Ericsson both for 5G Radio and for the first campus network implementation. In a time where mobile networks are more critical than ever before, 5G is a transformation platform that will also provide stability in a post-COVID era in realizing Industry 4.0 vision and use cases.”

While 5G can drive the digitalization of the economy, it’s also predicted to deliver EUR 771 million of net benefits for the Slovakian GDP, according to a recent Analysys Mason report on 5G use cases.