Telia has almost 200 5G base stations across Estonia

TALLINN – The number of 5G base stations commissioned by Telia Estonia is nearing 200, and the stations cover almost a third of the Estonian population with 5G, Andre Visse, chief technology officer (CTO) at Telia Estonia, says.

The company started to build its 5G network in November 2020, using the 4G frequency band. 

"We took this step because the auction of the 3.6 GHz band for 5G deployment had been long delayed. At the same time, several other countries were rapidly rolling out their 5G networks and we were lagging behind. Today, we can say that we made the right decision in November 2020 when we launched our 5G network in existing bands," Visse said in a press release on Thursday. 

The CTO of Telia Estonia added that the 5G frequency authorization auction, which began this week, marks the end of a period of more than three years of anticipation, and the frequency blocks to be distributed by the state in the 3.6 gigahertz band, with their wide band range, will allow large volumes of data to be transmitted at high speeds, which will significantly improve user experience for users of TV services, for example. 

Telia has not been able to offer customers the full potential of 5G technology on the available frequencies.

"Having a 5G license will allow us to solve this concern," Visse said.

Telia has opened its 5G network in all counties and most cities of Estonia, and the construction of the new network is currently one of the most important focuses for the company.

Almost 100,000 customers use 5G phones on the network of Telia Estonia already.