Spanish telecommunications operator Vodafone, a unit of U.K.-based Vodafone Group, announced plans to expand 5G services to five new cities in the coming months, Spanish press reported Vodafone Spain’s CEO, Antonio Coimbra, as saying.
Coimbra declined to name the cities in which the carrier plans to launch 5G networks.
He highlighted that Vodafone is currently focused on expanding current 5G coverage in the 15 Spanish cities where the telco already offers the technology. Coimbra also said that the company’s current 5G coverage in these cities already reaches 50% on average.
Some of the cities in which Vodafone already launched 5G include Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Bilbao and Valencia. In July 2018, Vodafone Spain started to deploy its 5G network in some of these cities with the deployment of a limited number of 5G nodes. The company previously said that it was working with Huawei and Ericsson in the deployment of the 5G network.
Vodafone initially launched 5G in Spain in June this year. The executive also highlighted that Vodafone is working with partners in the enterprise segment to launch new 5G use cases for several verticals ,including agriculture, health and industry.
Coimbra added that the award of spectrum in the 700 MHz, expected to occur during 2020, will be key for the continued expansion of 5G in Spain.
During a conference call with investors, Vodafone Group’s CEO Nick Read said that the company has made significant improvements in the 5G market in Europe in recent months.
“We have made rapid progress launching 5G services. We’re already live in 58 cities across the region. And uniquely, we’re able to offer 5G roaming in our largest markets,” the executive said.
“These launches have firmly established Vodafone as the European leader in 5G in the minds of consumers, but most importantly, in the minds of business customers where we see strong engagement by businesses from all sectors to understand the potential for their business models,” Read added.
Vodafone Group has already commercially launched 5G in other markets such as the U.K., Italy and Germany.
In the U.K., some cities in which Vodafone’s 5G service is already available are London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester. In Germany, Vodafone’s 5G service is already live in Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Dortmund, Munich, Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Darmstadt, Leipzig, and Frankfurt.
In Italy, the technology is available in Milan, Turin, Bologna, Rome and Naples, among other cities.
