Vodafone Spain has announced a series of 5G-related developments to coincide with the Mobile World Congress 2022 event in Barcelona. First up, the telco has disclosed plans to launch a fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G service ‘in the coming months’. The service will utilise a self-installing 5G router that will be capable of delivering download speeds of up to 1Gbps. While a precise launch date has not been disclosed, the service will go live in an initial 63 cities, all of which are home to more than 100,000 inhabitants.
In terms of its wider 5G coverage ambitions, Vodafone says it will extend 5G coverage to 46% of the population by the end of this year. Of the 983 municipalities earmarked for connectivity, 133 are towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, 605 towns are home to between 1,000 and 50,000 people and 245 are municipalities with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants.
Finally, on 27 February Vodafone says it made ‘the first commercial 5G data call in Spain between two smartphones using Open RAN technology’. The successful connection was made through a radio network based on Open RAN, supplied by Lime Microsystems, and connected to Vodafone’s commercial network.
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