Austrian operator Magenta Telekom, which is owned by German telecom group Deutsche Telekom, expects to cover 50% of the country’s households with 5G technology by the end of 2021, a company spokesperson told RCR Wireless News.
The telco ended last year with 1,200 5G sites nationwide, covering approximately 40% of households. In July 2020, the 5G service reached 400 locations, while 1,000 locations were 5G-capable in October.
The telco had launched commercial 5G services in March 2019.
“Currently we have a standalone 5G network, a 5G Campus to be precise, in a smart factory of the Technical University of Graz for scientific and business development purposes based on a cooperation between Magenta Telekom and the university. We are hoping for an official opening as soon as possible. The coronavirus outbreak postponed the opening which was initially planned for summer 2020,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not reveal the number of 5G subscribers but noted that Magenta Telekom aims to attract more 5G subscribers this year with the 5G network also growing and reaching more homes and businesses. “In its expansion strategy, Magenta Telekom relies on the variety of networks. In rural areas, 5G and LTE will bring Internet to remote valleys in Austria. In cities, the fiber optic cable network, along with the other technologies, will provide broadband internet.”
The spokesperson also said that the Austrian telco is currently engaged with a number of 5G use cases for the enterprise segment.
He explained that the Technical University Vienna and Swarco are implementing an intelligent traffic light solution based on 5G. The surroundings are recorded by cameras on the traffic lights and relevant events are reported to the vehicles. The data processing takes place locally within the traffic light control. Local data processing protects the privacy of road users. Aggregated and anonymized data can then be processed further via 5G to a cloud solution for the evaluation of environmental data and traffic load. Magenta Telekom is the technical partner providing 5G network coverage and technical know-how.
Also, three nursing robots are currently in use at the Floridsdorf Clinic in Vienna. The 5G health robots provided by Magenta measure the temperature in the children’s outpatient clinic and provide information about diseases.
