April 17, 2020 — The rumor went something like this: Authorities installed a 5G antenna in a secret operation to avoid public outrage. It spread across the small town of Bibinje, outside of Zadar. Soon, unnamed locals returned the favor with their own clandestine attack on the suspicious device — a wifi hotspot funded by the EU. 

The Municipality released a formal statement denying any 5G antennas were installed, revealing it kept mum on the free internet to prevent public gatherings.

"As information emerged that the Municipality of Bibinje secretly and at night installed equipment for the 5G signal, we are obliged to deny such allegations," town authorities wrote in a statement laced with embarrassment and frustration. "That's not true. It is actually amazing that at such times someone is peddling such false information and lies to the public."

The damaged apparatus was actually a €15,000 wifi hotspot networked gifted, for free, by the WiFi4EU program. The initiative gives municipalities "free access to Wi-Fi connectivity for citizens in public spaces including parks, squares, public buildings, libraries, health centers and museums in municipalities throughout Europe."

The anti-5G movement suggested the increased wave density of the new network causes health problems — namely cancer. Animus towards the invisible cell phone network ramped up with the coronavirus's emergence, which conspiracy theorists tied to 5G in various ways. Either 5G helps the virus's spread, or the virus has been a diversion to allow nefarious governments to install 5G while fear-laden locals worry about a deadly respiratory illness.

The various theories have gained traction within a certain sect of skeptics in the Balkans.

Authorities said they kept mum on the new wifi hotspot after it's installation last month because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The router was delivering free internet to three locations in the town where the public typically gathers — the town square, the municipal building, and a popular promenade.

Authorities didn't want locals racing to free wifi in an age of social distancing and "stay at home."

"Given the new situation, we found it inappropriate," authorities wrote in the statement, "bragging about the implementation of equipment that provides free internet access on frequent public areas (outdoors)."

The authorities said the area where the vandals hit was under video surveillance, and they should identify the culprits soon.

ZAGREB, February 1, 2020 - Following the European Commission's recommendations on 5G networks, the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) will define criteria for equipment suppliers wishing to operate on the Croatian market and will award frequencies for 5G by the end of the year, the regulator told Hina.

Earlier this week, the European Commission and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) unveiled the so-called Toolbox for 5G, a joint response by all EU member states to possible cybersecurity risks related to the rollout of 5G networks.

Risks were assessed both at national level and at EU level, and HAKOM coordinated the risk assessment in Croatia.

The national task force coordinated by HAKOM now has to select tools from the EU Toolbox and define criteria for equipment manufacturers and suppliers that wish to operate in Croatia, while domestic operators will be able to purchase equipment and solutions from all manufacturers that meet the set criteria.

"As far as we know, all equipment manufacturers are interested in the Croatian market and we expect them to take the requirements that will be set before them seriously," HAKOM said, adding that it is important that Croatia coordinates its activities with other member states and that they all follow the joint methodology.

A public consultation on the award of frequency bands was held between 18 October 2019 and 20 January 2020, and HAKOM plans to award frequency bands for the implementation of 5G technology by the end of this year.

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Why exactly was Osijek chosen as the very first Croatian 5G city? Companies in Osijek Software City believe this government decision could help invest in increasing the number of IT professionals in this often overlooked Eastern Croatian city.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 26th of January, 2020, although the decision to make Osijek the first Croatian 5G city rather than Bjelovar, Karlovac or Rijeka, who all applied, can be primarily explained by a very strong and promising local IT community that would research and create new products based on new 5G technologies. Another part of the answer to that question is that there is already high demand in Osijek.

The Osatina Group, an agricultural company with more than 1400 employees, has embarked on the major computerisation of its operations over more recent years. Among other things, the Zagreb-based IT company GDI Group has connected cows to the internet (yes, you read that right), and with the introduction of 5G, it expects to be able to move to autonomously driven tractors, autonomous drones and operate multispectral cameras for what is known as precision agriculture. One of the projects they plan on will see the introduction of 5G in Croatia bring them direct and very welcome savings.

Instead of processing the data on each vehicle, for example during fertilisation, it will now be able to migrate it to the cloud and send only agricultural-relevant information related to their current location to the vehicles. Ericsson Nikola Tesla opened a development centre in the largest city in Slavonia more than a year ago. It develops 5G technologies and, according to the latest information, employs some forty talented IT professionals.

Gordana Kovacevic, President of the Board of Directors of Ericsson NT emphasised that in cooperation with the University of Osijek, new jobs are planned for 300 young scientists. As previously stated, companies in Osijek Software City believe the government decision to make Osijek the first Croatian 5G city could help them invest in projects to increase the number of IT professionals locally. In its latest available survey, conducted back 2018, it can be seen that the number of software development companies in the county increased by 18 percent to 176, the number of employees rose by 19 percent to 713, and the total revenue increased by 93 percent to 351. 9 million kuna.

Exports from these companies increased by 36 percent to a massive 232.2 million kuna. Rimac Automobili is one of the companies that opened a branch in Osijek. Sacha Vrazic, Rimac Automobili's director of autonomous driving development, says 5G will enable real-time driving telemetry.

"The use of 5G will enable real-time telemetry and we'll be able to transmit data from all sensors, as well as that, 5G is also key to the development of smart city technologies," explained Vrazic.

HT has stated that Osijek already has locations ready to become the first Croatian 5G city and is testing them out. It also pointed out that back in September 2019, they demonstrated the first video transmission over the 5G network in this part of Europe with the Osijek startup Orqa.

Tele2 explained that, according to Hakom, they expect that the allocation of the spectrum for 5G will take place in the second half of this year and that this will fulfill all the preconditions for investing in the 5G network.

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