Danish operator TDC announced the launch of its commercial 5G network in the country using equipment from Ericsson, while Telia and Telenor also announced a joint 5G launch scheduled for later this month.
TDC’s 5G launch on the 3.5 GHz spectrum band includes the major Danish cities of Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and Helsingør. The carrier expects to reach nationwide 5G coverage by the end of 2020.
TDC began deploying 5G infrastructure on Zealand, its largest and most populous island, in October 2019. Since then, almost 3,000 base station sites have been equipped with Ericsson’s 5G technology throughout Denmark.
Ericsson’s 5G partnership with TDC Denmark includes Radio Access Network products and solutions from Ericsson Radio System and core solutions from Ericsson’s 5G Core portfolio.
In March 2019, Ericsson was chosen by TDC for the rollout of commercial 5G, including managed services, as part of a major network overhaul.
In December 2019, Ericsson provided 5G network equipment for a pilot network that was launched by TDC in the city of Helsingør, Denmark. The 5G pilot network used a 3.5 GHz test license.
Meanwhile, Nordic operators Telia and Telenor, who operate shared mobile infrastructure in Denmark, announced that they will start rolling out 5G technology in Denmark later this month.
Ahead of the 5G launch, the companies said they have upgraded the network and conducted several successful 5G pilot tests.
Telia and Telenor also announced that the first cities to get 5G will be Copenhagen and Aalborg, where existing 5G test sites will be made available for public use. Following this initial activation, the two companies said they will upgrade additional existing sites.
Telia and Telenor will continue with the rollout of 5G technology in the cities of Aarhus and Odense.
“We want to roll out a nationwide 5G network based on customer and market demand. A smart rollout, where our customers will get the most out of both the new 5G network and leverage existing, strong and nationwide 4G network. Our priority is to ensure that we can offer the best network coverage and at the same time enable innovative digital solutions that utilize the technologies and capacity of our network,” said Thomas Kjærsgaard, head of Telia in Denmark.
The two partners also said that the network modernization and 5G rollout will continue gradually over the coming years as the 5G frequencies becomes commercially available in Denmark.
Denmark completed the auction of spectrum in the 700 MHz, 900 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands in April 2019. The local telecom regulator also expects to award spectrum in the 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands for 5G later this year.
