In southern Europe, operators are moving forward with deployments of fixed wireless access (FWA) service. Europe was the second largest 5G FWA market, according to Research and Markets. Vodafone launched a network in Spain yesterday. Known as “Hogar 5G” — meaning home 5G – the 5G broadband service will provide access speeds of up to 1 Gbps and connect up to 35 devices to the same network to residences and businesses.
Customers can access the 5G services through a “plug-in-and-go” 5G router. 5G services will be guaranteed at the main home or business premises for each customer, but the router can be taken elsewhere in Spain. Hogar 5G will initially be available in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia, Malaga, Seville, Bilbao and A Coruña, with 65 cities to follow.
In Italy, OpNet, formerly Linkem, has chosen Ericsson’s 5G Core technology for the packet core component of what it claims is the first commercial 5G FWA Standalone network built in Europe and Italy. The implementation, which will provide full cloud-native 5G Core for packet core applications, allows OpNet to manage both 4G and 5G Non-standalone networks, as well as 5G Standalone networks simultaneously.
Because of the use of standalone technology, OpNet has exclusive use of the 5G spectrum on a fixed wireless connection for the first time, according to Massimo Arciulo, CEO of Opnet. “5G wireless, mobile and FWA technologies will play a central role in closing the digital divide and accelerating the deployment of private networks, innovative services for the business world and in smart city contexts,” he said.
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