The Norwegian Armed Forces and Telenor had initially entered into a strategic ICT partnership in 2018
Norwegian operator Telenor and the country’s Armed Forces signed an agreement to collaborate to develop new 5G-based services, the former said in a release.
The first phase of this collaboration project stipulates the deployment of a private autonomous 5G network for the Norwegian Armed Forces.
“As one of the Armed Forces’ strategic partners, we will now strengthen the Armed Forces’ operational capability with the help of innovative technology and a comprehensive digital architecture. It is through such technology collaborations that we really get to test and show the 5G network’s enormous possibilities,” said Birgitte Engebretsen, head of Telenor Bedrift.
Telenor noted that the agreement includes planning, engineering, development and operation of a pilot on an autonomous private 5G mobile network, which cooperates with a military network disk in Telenor’s commercial network. This means that the Armed Forces will have its own tailor-made network in Telenor’s 5G mobile network.
“We have been working for several years to test 5G and what opportunities it can give us in the defense sector. We are now taking it a step further, and have entered into agreements with commercial operators. The purpose is to look at the possibilities of delivering a separate military 5G network that can be combined with the national networks that are now being established, said Eiliv Ofigsbø, head of ICT capabilities in Defense Materiel.
“An important goal for the collaboration is to test and optimize the interaction between military units when they are either connected to a private autonomous 5G network or the military network disk in Telenor’s commercial network. We have great faith in the solutions that will come out of this collaboration,” Engebretsen added.
The Armed Forces and Telenor had initially entered into a strategic ICT partnership in 2018, which forms the basis for this contract.
In March 2020, Ericsson and Telenor switched on Norway’s first commercial 5G services in the city of Trondheim as part of an ongoing partnership to develop and update Telenor’s 5G radio access network (RAN).
Ericsson and Telenor have been working together to bring 5G to Norway since December 2019, when the operator first selected the tech supplier to deliver its nationwide 5G radio access network.
