Vodafone Hungary has announced that it is switching on around 200 5G base stations in and around Budapest within the next few weeks, making 5G services available ‘in almost the entire area of the capital’ for ‘hundreds of thousands’ of potential users. Furthermore, Vodafone has signed a cooperation agreement with Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) under which it is contributing 40MHz of 5G spectrum in the 3500MHz band to BME’s experimental network and 5G Laboratory, supported by Nokia.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that Vodafone launched commercial 5G mobile services covering downtown Budapest in October 2019, using 3500MHz band frequencies it won in 2016, and it had 34 operational 5G base stations in the capital as of mid-2020. It added to its 5G resources via March 2020’s licence auction, winning further 3500MHz spectrum and a block of 700MHz frequencies – entering validity in September 2020 – to enable coverage expansion. Vodafone has previously said that by end-2020 it will operate around 300 5G base stations in Budapest and its environs plus towns surrounding Lake Balaton and the cities of Miskolc, Gyor, Debrecen, Szekesfehervar, Pecs, Szeged and Eger.
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2020/10/15/vodafone-hungary-expands-budapest-5g-network/