Telia Sweden, partners receive EU funding for dedicated 5G networks

Telia and RISE, in collaboration with other partners, will receive EUR 3 million to establish networks and lead digitalization projects at an agricultural test bed in Ultuna, Luleå Port, Boden Industrial Park and Skellefteå Smart City. The projects will explore digital innovations for sustainable agriculture, transport, logistics, port safety and traffic management in cities, using technical solutions such as agricultural robots, drones and connected and self-driving vehicles.

Telia and Region Stockholm have already been collaborating on 5G and health care for a few years and have now been awarded EUR 6.4 million to establish networks and explore how advanced 5G services can contribute to increased patient safety, quality of care and accessibility. A 5G indoor network will be installed at one of Region Stockholm’s hospitals, enabling the project to focus on innovations such as video communication from accident sites and between ambulances and emergency receptions, defibrillator drones, real-time positioning of medical equipment, and inventory and equipment management at hospitals.

Magnus Leonhardt, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Telia Sweden’s B2B business, says: “The new EU funds pave the way for decisive investments in 5G in several important areas, where we gather representatives from the private sector, the public sector and academia in strong ecosystems and partnerships. The networks we will roll out will feature the latest 5G technology and will also be used within the framework of our NorthStar innovation program together with Ericsson, giving us access to technical capabilities that are crucial for the introduction of digital solutions in these areas. We will create concrete benefits and customer value for society, businesses and individuals, such as more efficient transport, greener agriculture and better health care.”

Tor Björn Minde, Head of the ICE Datacenter unit at RISE, says: “We at RISE look forward to closer cooperation with Telia on advanced digitalization developments to support the development of Swedish industry.”

The digital innovation projects will run for three years and the dedicated 5G networks established across Sweden will be supported by the RISE ICE Connect Experimental Compute Cloud.