“We are happy to announce that we have chosen Ericsson to start building the future 5G radio network in Norway, and I am confident we now are perfectly positioned to be in the forefront of the country’s network modernisation,” said Petter-Børre Furberg, CEO of Telenor Norway. “As the first mobile operator on 5G in Scandinavia, Telenor will ramp up the roll out of 5G to our customers in Norway in 2020. The full modernisation of the mobile network in Norway is an ambitious undertaking, and something we are excited to get started on.”
In a statement the company says that although Ericsson is its vendor of choice for 5G, it will continue to ‘use equipment from existing RAN vendor Huawei to maintain the 4G network and also upgrade to 5G coverage in selected areas of Norway’ due in part to the 4-5-year length of time it will take to fully upgrade to 5G.
“When selecting the vendor for the radio access network, we have considered important factors like technical quality, ability to innovate and modernise the network, commercial terms and conditions, as well as carried out an extensive security evaluation,” added Sigve Brekke (pictured), CEO of Telenor Group. “Based on the comprehensive and holistic evaluation, we have decided to introduce a new partner for this important technology shift in Norway.”
The company has also made It clear that the radio access network (RAN) represents the outer layer of the network and that the inner layer or core network is being upgraded by Nokia and Ericsson. A perceived reference to the ongoing allegations against Chinese vendor Huawei and its suggested security concerns.
“Telenor’s network for the future will give Norwegians access to products and services that have never before been available. With 5G we get fibre-optic speed over the mobile network,” concluded Petter-Børre Furberg.
