The joint venture between Tele2 and Telenor is deploying Nokia’s AirScale portfolio for commercial roll-out.
Nokia is to deploy its equipment to support commercial 5G services across “significant” areas of Sweden in a five-year deal.
It will supply kit from its AirScale portfolio to deliver 5G to businesses and consumers, to enable use cases across Industry 4.0, entertainment, cloud gaming, transportation, education, and healthcare.
Replacing 4G
The intention is to improve 4G performance while increasing capacity with 5G services introduced at most sites within awarded areas.
Net4Mobility will also use the 3.5 GHz spectrum band for dense urban coverage and it is expected that a significant number of new sites will be added every year.
Net4Mobility is replacing Huawei equipment which provided its its 4G network, switching to Ericsson and Nokia, after the Swedish regulator, PTS, decided Chinese vendors should be banned from Sweden’s communications infrastructure on security grounds.
There are fears the likes of Huawei and ZTE could be obliged to use their equipment to spy for the Chinese state, which they deny.
Huawei has taken the regulator to court and China has threatened Sweden, and its flagship telecoms equipment provider, Ericsson, with retribution if the decision in not reversed.
The final court ruling is expected soon.
Adding to the core
Net4Mobility, which was formed in 2009 to support the deployment of 2G and 4G networks, is Sweden’s largest RAN and carries about 60% of the country’s network traffic.
Its 4G network covers 90% of the country and 99.9% of the population.
The collaboration will continue with the development of a 5G network. Nokia has already been selected by Tele2 and Telenor for the cloud core network.
Nokia will supply AirScale Base Stations, AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna solutions, and other RAN solutions and tools to drive operational efficiency.
The company will also provide professional services, including integration, implementation, and network optimisation services, and technical support for operations and maintenance.
5G all over the country
Jonas Edén, CTO of Telenor Sweden, said: “We continue to expand our 5G offer to our subscribers in Sweden. 5G is already available in our biggest cities and we aim to offer the service to 99.9% of Sweden’s population by the end of 2023.”
Yogesh Malik, CTIO of Tele2, commented: “I am very pleased that we can now begin the broad rollout of 5G in Sweden. The new generation network will mean a significant improvement for consumers and enable innovation, automation, and higher efficiency for companies.”
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said, “This deal demonstrates Nokia’s continued momentum for both radio and 5G across Scandinavia and the Baltic region.”