Telia, Ericsson and TalTech Partner to Launch Estonia's first 5G Pilot

Telia Company, Ericsson and Tallinn University of Technology, TalTech, have joined forces to launch Estonia’s first 5G pilot network at the university campus by year-end. Companies and startups are invited to use the 5G network to develop future services and new business models.

“In 2016, together with Ericsson, we announced our plan to launch the first 5G network in Stockholm and in Tallinn. Now it is time to fulfill this promise,“ says Kirke Saar, CTO at Telia Estonia.

She says the network will provide lightning fast mobile data for the whole TalTech campus, which enables the development of innovative new services and solutions.

“Our goal is to use the 5G network to create a vision of how 5G will improve our lives, and how high-tech solutions can shape a future city. We want to demonstrate how different vehicles move and communicate with each other, how smart houses affect our daily lives, and showcase traffic with self-driving cars, smart traffic signs and infrastructure equipped with various sensors. We believe that this new technology will make our lives safer, more convenient and effective both in homes and public spaces,“ Kirke Saar explained.

Per Narvinger, Head of Customer Unit Northern & Central Europe at Ericsson, explained, “Building a pilot 5G network in TalTech campus shows Ericsson’s strong commitment to, jointly with our partner Telia, drive innovation and digitalization in Estonia. This 5G project also serves as another crucial step towards launching early commercial 5G services in the country.”

TalTech has built a self-driving car named Iseauto, which will become one of the first cooperation projects within the 5G pilot’s scope. The next milestone will come in 2019, when the project partners will showcase Iseauto driving around and communicating with the surrounding infrastructure with the help of 5G.

According to Gert Jervan, Dean of the faculty of information technology at TalTech, the 5G network and the 5G campus will help promote technology cooperation between companies, students and researchers.

"With the help of a smart city test platform, entrepreneurs will be able to develop new business models together with researchers, which would be possible on the new 5G network. So, it's not just a technical solution - its scope will be considerably wider," Jervan says.