Vodafone Ireland today beat its self-imposed deadline to launch a commercial 5G network, deploying service across parts of five cities. The network operator previously announced plans to activate 5G services during the fourth quarter, but today’s launch puts it more than a month ahead of schedule.
That timing is more of a competitive edge, particularly in markets where network operators are clamoring to be first to 5G. Fellow Irish network operators Eir and Three plan to launch their respective 5G networks before the end of the year.
Vodafone Ireland’s 5G service is available in parts of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford. The company says it will bring service to additional urban areas later this year, and a more widespread rollout during the next two years. The deployment also marks the first use of Vodafone Ireland’s recently acquired spectrum for 5G, according to the companies.
Ericsson, which is the primary supplier of network equipment for Vodafone Ireland’s network, said the operator is using its Baseband 6630 and AIR 6488 products for the 5G activations. John Griffin, managing director of Ericsson Ireland, said the vendor has supported the launch of every generation of mobile technology in Ireland.
“Ericsson has been investing in Ireland for 60 years,” he said in a prepared statement. To date, Ericsson has provided equipment and software to “almost two-thirds of all commercially launched 5G networks spanning across four continents,” he added.
During a launch event at the Assert Centre at University College Cork, Vodafone Ireland demonstrated 5G speeds in excess of 700 MB/s and launched a new IoT center for innovations in healthcare in partnership with the university. The center claims to be the first 5G telemedicine and medical robotics training center in the world. Vodafone Ireland also announced the pending release of two 5G-capable smartphones: Huawei’s Mate 20X 5G and Samsung’s S10 5G.
“5G is set to revolutionize how we use and adopt technology and will have a huge impact on businesses and society in Ireland,” said Vodafone Ireland CEO Anne O’Leary in a prepared statement. “It will bring high speed, ultra-low latency and highly secure connectivity to a massive amount of devices; and is a technology that will unlock a vast array of new use cases.”
Elsewhere in Europe, Vodafone has also activated 5G service in parts of 20 cities in Germany and seven cities in the United Kingdom.