The Spanish government has issued the permits for two 5G pilot programs in the country, which will be funded by financial resources from the state and the European Union (EU).
The two 5G trials will require a total investment of over $40 million. Around $11 million will be co-funded by state agency Red.es within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The first trial will be carried out by Vodafone Spain and Chinese vendor Huawei in the cities of Pamplona, Malaga and Seville. Vodafone also announced plans to carry out another 5G trial with Ericsson in Vigo.
The trials with Huawei have a budget of more than $27 million and will last for 30 months.
Vodafone’s 5G trials will explore several use cases, including agriculture, health, smart cities, security and defense, economy and digital culture, digital transformation, and tourism, among others. Some of the 5G use cases will involve virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), while some others will focus on the use of drones and facial recognition.
Meanwhile, the government also approved 5G trials to be carried out by Telefonica in the Galicia region. These trials will be carried out in cooperation with European vendors Nokia, Ericsson and Spain-based Telnet.
These 5G trials will required a total budget of $12 million and are expected to last more than two years.
Telefonica’s 5G trial will mainly focus on use cases including drones, connected cars, fixed wireless access (FWA) and health.
In January 2018, Telefonica partnered with Nokia and Ericsson for the initial deployment of 5G capabilities in the cities of Segovia and Talavera de la Reina. Nokia was in charge of deploying 5G infrastructure in Segovia, while Ericsson focused on network deployments in Talavera de la Reina.
The Spanish operator said these two initial deployments would allow it to adapt its systems for the future rollout of 5G systems across the rest of the country. The telco also said at the time that 5G use cases would be developed with concept tests on the new services, products, experiences and business models.
Orange Spain also aims to test 5G in a number of cities with the support provided by Red.es, the country’s digital transformation program. Tests will be carried out in the cities of Valencia, Seville, Malaga, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona and Bilbao.
Orange Spain’s parent, Orange Group, said it aims to launch 5G technology in 17 major European cities across Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Spain during 2019.
The telco said that these initial launches will pave the way for the company’s full-scale commercial launch of this technology, which is scheduled to take place during 2020.
