The renowned Spanish telecom operator, Telefonica, has rolled out its 5G Standalone (SA) radio networks contract to Ericsson and Nokia. The decision was announced by Telefonica last week, and both the vendors were given equal importance. As reported by RCR Wireless, Telefonica will use its 22,000 base stations across Spain and 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band to transition from 5G NSA to 5G SA. Not only this but, Telefonica intends to use the frequencies it strives to bid for in next month’s 700 MHz band auction.
Telefonica is Yet to Pick Vendors for Deployment of 5G Core Network
Earlier, Telefonica had tied strings with Ericsson and Nokia for the deployment of 2G, 3G and 4G networks across the country. Amongst the list of vendors, Huawei was completely excluded from the 5G SA contracts due to rising privacy concerns. Even though Huawei denied all the allegations, the Chinese vendor had to face backlash in the Telefonica 5G SA contracts. Since the operator has locked Ericsson and Nokia for the 5G SA transition, the next step would be hunting down vendors for the deployment of its 5G core network. To date, no vendors have been given the contract by Telefonica for the 5G core network.
Telefonica 5G Network Currently Reaches 1,253 Towns and Cities Across Spain
Telefonica has constantly been scaling its 5G network across Spain to offer the benefits of the next-generation technology to its subscribers. In a recent release, the telco stated that its 5G network extends to 1,253 towns and cities across Spain. Not only this, but the telco has installed more than 4,300 nodes that offer coverage to more than 37 million people across Spain.
Tracing back the growth of the 5G rollout, the telco launched the network service back in September 2020 and committed to deploying 5G in 921 towns and cities. Currently, Telefonica’s 5G network combines the deployment of 5G NSA and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). The 5G service by Telefonica in Spain is being offered through the spectrum in the 3.5 GHz and 1.8-2.1 GHz bands.
