Page 92 - SAMENA Trends - November-December 2019

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

EE Extends 5G to Nine New Locations, Upping Total Coverage to 50

Mobile network operator (MNO) EE has cities and towns – and expanding our 5G always deliver the best mobile experience
announced the switch-on of its fifth- coverage in each place – is helping us to to our customers.’
generation network in six new cities and
three more towns in the United Kingdom,
noting that this development means it is
now offering 5G connectivity in a total of
50 locations across the country. In a press
release the MNO confirmed that the six
‘major’ UK cities of Hull, Leeds, Newcastle,
Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland were
all now within its network footprint, while
the three new towns to receive coverage
were named as Northampton, Stevenage
and Wakefield. With the network expansion
meaning that EE has achieved its self-
imposed target of offering 5G in at least 45
towns and cities by the end of 2019, it said
it has now set a new goal of upping that
figure to 70 by March 2020. Commenting,
Marc Allera, CEO of EE parent company
BT’s consumer division, said: ‘We switched
on the UK’s first 5G network in May, and
this is another milestone towards keeping
our customers connected 100% of the
time. We’re leading the way in the UK, with
4G and 5G coverage in more places than
any other operator. Adding 5G to more

Orange Luxembourg All Set for 5G, Awaiting Release of Spectrum

Orange has said it is ready to launch lot of disruption in terms of innovation. In the 17 European cities in which Orange
its 5G network in Luxembourg, after a very responsible way, we want to make Group has been trialing 5G services. As
partnering with Ericsson to conduct tests our customers benefit from the evolutions previously reported by TeleGeography’s
in laboratory conditions. New antennas of the era of artificial intelligence and CommsUpdate, the government has
have been installed and the network can be the Internet of Things. All this in order to indicated that allocation of spectrum in the
switched once the required frequency has participate in a new form of digital society,’ 700MHz and 3.6GHz bands will take place
been allocated, claims the operator. ‘We are noted Orange Luxembourg CEO, Corinne by mid-2020 at the latest, mostly likely via
convinced that 5G is a step that will bring a Loze. Luxembourg’s capital is one of an auction.

Deutsche Bahn Opens Fiber-Optic Network to Telecoms Operators

German railway company Deutsche operators. DB’s fiber infrastructure a wholly owned subsidiary of DB Netz,
Bahn (DB) has opened up its fiber-optic stretches 18,500km alongside its has been established to operate the new
network for use by the country’s telecoms nationwide rail network. DB broadband, business.

92 NOVEMBER 2019