Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunications operator, has obtained equipment from Swedish vendor Ericsson aiming to replace several gears previously employed by Chinese vendor Huawei, according to a confirmed Expansion report.
The report noted that Telefónica had initially rolled out some equipment manufactured by Huawei before seeking to secure alternative supplies for its 5G network. It is still not confirmed how much equipment Telefónica bought from Ericsson or when the purchase was made.
The US government had long been urging some of its main allies to replace 5G kits developed by Chinese companies because of security concerns.
Telefónica previously noted it expects to begin the deployment of 5G Standalone (SA) services in 2022.
The three main cases developed by Telefónica Tech and to be sold by the telco’s enterprise division Telefónica Empresas from January 2022 are:
- Automated guided robot vehicles for use in places including warehouses;
- Remote maintenance systems using technology including smart glasses;
- Drones for site surveillance.
The automated guided vehicles for industrial use are connected via an IoT visualization and route planning platform. They aim to manage the communication in a bidirectional way, which facilitates performing repetitive tasks without human intervention.
The remote assistance service includes augmented reality. Moreover, the company added a remote monitoring and assistance platform which simplifies the work of technicians in the field.
Telefónica also mentioned that identified applications would be fully supported by its current Non-Standalone 5G technology and LTE.
In July 2021, Telefónica officially announced its decision to award the contracts to deploy its 5G standalone radio networks across Spain to Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia.
Nowadays, Telefónica offers 5G coverage to over 80% of the Spanish population. Telefónica’s 5G network currently combines the deployment of 5G NSA and DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing).
