Croatian Telecom (Hrvatski Telekom) is the first to have realised real-life 5G functionality in Croatia and has made an important step towards the arrival of the 5G network in Croatia, which will enable the further technological advancement of the company.
Croatia is ranked among the first European countries where 5G functionality has been demonstrated in real infrastructure conditions. A network operating on the 3.5 GHz spectrum was implemented with the pre-installed 5G system, using Ericsson's 5G network devices, ready for commercial use, making Croatian Telecom the first in Croatia to introduce new 5G technology.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of July, 2018, at the beginning of the year, Croatian Telecom initiated the process of the modernisation of the radio access network across the whole of Croatia. This network will enable the introduction of 5G technology as soon as the required radio frequency spectrum is allocated to it. The project includes the modernisation of infrastructure, transport capacities, and their own radio equipment which will be completed by the end of 2019.
In the first half of the year, Croatian Telecom replaced all 137 of the old stations with the new, 5G-compatible base stations in Istria. Since the beginning of July, such activities were continued in Zagreb, the city in which will the most advanced mobile technology in Croatia and the region will be implemented after Istria, ranking Croatia's capital alongside the most developed European markets, such as those of Germany and Switzerland.
"Our users have the best mobile network in Europe, and this is just a confirmation that this will be the case in the future. First, we made a big step forward in the preparation of Croatia for 5G, which places us among the top European countries to have implemented that first. Croatian Telecom sees the commercial implementation of the 5G network in around 2020. A full swing with a full range of functionality is expected in the period between 2025 and 2030,'' said Boris Drilo of Croatian Telecom.
Croatian Telecom is continuously investing in the latest technology and infrastructure modernisation. Last year alone, a massive 1,745 billion kuna was invested in infrastructure, more specifically, 8.5 percent more than was invested the year before. In the last four years, the total investment is higher than six billion kuna.
5G is a new generation of communication networks which provides a great opportunity for the Croatian economy and its development. Its commercialisation will change the way in which we communicate, use devices from our everyday lives, and will ease both our private and and business lives. Self-driving vehicles and robotics in medicine will only be realised with the introduction of this, the latest generation of networks.
With all of its abilities, 5G will change society as a whole. Just like the internet, electric power, steam machines, printing machines were, or continue to be, the main driving forces of socioeconomic development and make up the so-called general-purpose technology, and 5G will be the next big technology that will significantly improve people's quality of life and increase productivity.
By 2020, each citizen will have an average of four connected devices connected to the Internet, so it's extremely important to develop 5G standards in their full scope, which implies creating an international system that will enable the rapid implementation of 5G networks around the world. The adoption of standards is needed to make all manufacturers and operators work on a single product and reduce energy and resource loss, this is necessary for further intensive work with customers and industrial partners, as well as with regulatory bodies.
A public demonstration of 5G functionalities in real-world conditions will be held on July the 13th in Pula, the largest city in the first region where 5G functionality has now been modernised.
