Telekom Slovenije is now delivering Slovenia’s first commercial 5G services via its 2600MHz spectrum.
The deployment involved 150 base stations, which are currently able to provide coverage to 25% of Slovenia’s population. CommsUpdate reports that the operator is aiming to increase this figure to around 33% by the end of 2020. The network concurrently supports Telekom Slovenije’s 4G offering.
Telekom Slovenije board member Matjaz Bericic noted: “After a period of kilobit and megabit speeds, we are entering the gigabit decade by upgrading from 4G to 5G - and since every future begins with the first step, in this step, we have carried out an evolutionary upgrade of existing mobile technology based on established and secure standards that we have known and upgraded for several decades. We are planning at least two more major phases of 5G development in the coming years.”
Slovenia’s plan to hold spectrum auctions before July 2020 was delayed due to issues over the adoption of an updated Radio Frequency Spectrum Management Strategy. The regulator now plans to sell frequencies in the 700MHz, 1400MHz/1500MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, 3600MHz and 26GHz bands before the end of 2020.
