Sweden is Nordic 5G Laggard

Sweden’s telecom market includes mature mobile and broadband sectors have been greatly stimulated by the progressive investment of the main MNOs in developing new technologies. The country retains one of the best developed LTE infrastructures in the region, while its MNOs have benefited from the January 2021 auction of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band which will enable them to expand services nationally.

Sweden has 4 physical network operators: Telia, Tele2 using brand name Comviq, Telenor (formerly Vodafone Sweden) and 3 (Tre).

However, all the 4 physical networks share 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G with at least one other network:

Telia runs its own 2G and 4G LTE networks. Its 3G network on 2100 MHz is shared with Tele2, while it has an own 3G network on the 900 MHz band.

Tele2 operates all its networks in cooperation with other operators: Tele2's 2G and 4G are shared with Telenor, while its 3G is shared with Telia.

Telenor's 2G and 4G networks are shared with Tele2, 3G is shared with 3 outside Stockholm, Gothenborg, Malmö, Lund and Karlskrona, where they have their own.

3 is the only Swedish network without any 2G. They currently have two different 3G networks, one on the 2100 MHz band, shared with Telenor (except in the cities named above), and one on the 900 MHz band, that they don't share. They have also built their own 4G network.

In 2021 Telia is market leader with the best coverage and 36% of customers, followed by Tele2 with 27% and Telenor with 19% and 3 with 15% in last position.

2G is on 900 and 1800 MHz like everywhere in Europe, 3G is on 900 and 2100 MHz. Tre does not have a 2G network.

All major 4 Swedish operators support 4G/LTE. Tele2 and Telenor have a joint LTE network called Net4Mobility claiming 99.5% coverage. LTE is on all carriers on 2600 MHz (band 7) in the cities. 800 MHz (band 20), 900 MHz (band 8, only on Net4Mobility) and 1800 MHz (band 3) frequencies are used additionally. Tre offers TDD-LTE on 2600 MHz (band 38) and FDD-LTE on 2100 MHz (band 1) in some locations. From 2019 700 MHz (Band 28) will be added by Telia and Net4Mobility.

Here's a beautiful collage of the 5G coverage maps of the *best covering* 5G networks per Nordic country: @TDCNET_DK, @ElisaOyj, @telianorge and @3Sverige. Yes, '3' has the widest 5G area coverage in Sweden - it says something about just how behind Swedish 5G rollout is. pic.twitter.com/bI1eKeU6C4

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) December 3, 2021

5G started to be available in Sweden during 2020 on some postpaid subscriptions on the four big operators and since September 2021 on some high-data Comviq postpaid plans, though not on prepaid and MVNO yet. Physically, 3 different 5G networks are being built: Telia and Tre will build their own networks, while Tele2 and Telenor continuing with their joint network Net4Mobility. Frequencies on 700 MHz (n28), 2300 MHz (n40) and 3500 MHz (n78) were auctioned to 4 providers in 2018 and 2021.

23% of mobile call minutes were carried by 3G networks in Sweden in 1H 2021, making 3G sunsets pretty unlikely (2G just 4%). VoLTE share of minutes 72% in 1H 2021: @3Sverige and @TelenorSverige above 80%, @tele2sweden and @TeliaSverige below 70%. Input data from @PTSse. pic.twitter.com/Gwa8BFny83

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) November 25, 2021

Both 2G and 3G are being phased out and are planned to terminated by 2025. Telia has announced that it will shutdown it's 2G network by 2025, but has started with its phase out. Telia has also said that it's own 3G network will shut down at the latest 2025, but it will dismantle individual sites as time goes. Tele2 has said that it's shared 3G network (that has been built with Telia) is being phased out since 2021 and will be completed at the latest 2025. So for data you need to have a device for 4G/LTE on the frequencies mentioned above, while a basic service will be maintained on 2G and 3G up to 2025 for voice and SMS services.

The OpenSignal June 2021 report on Sweden reveals a varied picture with three of the four national operators winning — or sharing the win — in at least three of the seven mobile experience categories. Telia solely wins Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience, while sharing the victory in Games Experience and 4G Availability. 3 leads in Video Experience and jointly wins Games Experience and Voice App Experience. Tele2 is a joint winner in Games Experience, Voice App Experience and 4G Availability.

Telia, owned by the Swedish Telia Company is market leader in Sweden with the best coverage nationwide in 2G, 3G, 4G and (on 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz): 4G/LTE is available for all prepaid products with up to 100 Mbit/s speed.

If one is visiting northern Sweden and intending to stay out of cities, then Telia or its subbrand Halebop will probably be the only network that has coverage.

In May 2020, Telia launched Sweden's first large-scale public 5G network in Stockholm. 5G is now being rolled out at a high pace from Skåne to Lappland and is already available in 22 cities. And in doing so, Telia managed to beat the Swedish 5G speed record. Telia collaborating with Ericsson means that 5G will have the same coverage as today's 4G network, in the period leading up to 2025 (covering 90 percent of Sweden’s geography and more than 99 percent of the population). As early as 2023, the 5G network will cover more than 90% of the population. 4G capacity will also double as part of the mobile network modernization. Telia’s 5G network uses higher frequency bands, such as 3.5 GHz, in densely populated areas with a lot of connected people and things using the network. The higher frequency bands are also used to build local, dedicated 5G networks for e.g., industry, ports, and hospitals. The lower frequency bands, such as 700 MHz, are used in rural areas to be able to offer good coverage and connection.

Comviq is a subsidiary of Tele2 in Sweden. That's why it uses the Tele2 and Telenor network on 2G, the Tele2 and Telia networks on 3G and Net4Mobility (= Tele2 and Telenor) on 4G with up to 80 Mbps speed. In September 2021, 5G on Net4Mobility was opened up to some high-data Comviq postpaid plans with up to 100 Mbps speed, but is not open for prepaid yet.

Tele2 doesn't sell own prepaid SIMs anymore, they are geared to contract customers and channel all prepaid products through their Comviq brand. They have a 99+% coverage on 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE.

Tele2 said it had switched on its commercial 5G network on May 24 2020. The operator said that the company’s customers will be able to enjoy the next generation mobile network in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. 5G services will be offered using 80 megahertz bandwidth on C-Band spectrum.

Telenor has a good 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE network up to 450 Mbps is available on Net4Moblity for prepaid too.

Telenor Sweden activated its 5G network in October 2020 in central Stockholm, marking the launch of nationwide roll-out using the new technology. The operator said the 5G network will provide internet access at 1 Gbps to customers with a compatible handset and a Telenor 5G-ready 30 GB, 75 GB or Unlimited subscription. The Telenor network uses 80 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.7 GHz band, which is shared with Tele2 via their Net4Mobility joint venture.

The next cities to get 5G will be Gothenburg and Malmö, and then the new network technology will reach cities with over 50,000 inhabitants, and finally, smaller towns. Telenor also said that it expects its 5G network to cover 99% of Sweden’s population by 2023.

3 (called "Tre") in Sweden has good speeds in 3G (on 900 and 2100 MHz) and 4G/LTE on (800, 2100 and 2600 MHz, partly as TD-LTE on band 38): Tre 3G and 4G coverage. Have in mind that Tre doesn't operate a 2G network and has no 2G roaming. You'll need to have a 3G or 4G device for using the Tre network. International roaming is blocked for all prepaid lines, you will be able to use their SIMs in Sweden only.

Tre Sweden (3 Sweden) officially launched its 5G network in June 2020 in Malmö, Helsingborg, Lund, Västerås, Uppsala and large parts of Stockholm. In December 2019, the Operator was the first in Sweden to launch a trial 5G network - then in southern Stockholm.

With nearly 400 active 5G masts, half of them in Stockholm, Tre said that it now has Sweden's most developed 5G network. The 5G network is activated using Tres' existing frequency spectrum.

All private customers with a 3Surf subscription from Tre and a 3G mobile from Tre, can access to the new 5G network at no extra cost. The same applies to corporate customers who have subscribed after January 15, 2019.

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: Sweden stride into 5G
• Operator Watch Blog: Telia 5G Strategy and Services
• Operator Watch Blog - Telia: Largest Operator in Nordic & Baltic Region 

Sweden stride into 5G

Sweden took a massive step into the 5G era with three of its mobile operators all launching their 5G networks the weekend of May 24th/25th 2020.

During the weekend, Sweden went from no 5G networks to three 5G networks. Note that both @tele2sweden and @TeliaSverige use "Sweden's best network" in their marketing. All of @3Sverige, Tele2 and Telia have claimed to be first with 5G - and (annoyingly) they are all partly right. pic.twitter.com/ecLfUBhZ0w

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) May 25, 2020

Tele2 issued a press release insisting they were the first operator to launch the next generation mobile network by activating Sweden’s first public 5G network in accordance with global standards.The telco said that the company’s customers will be able to enjoy the next generation mobile network in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Their 5G services will be offered using 80 megahertz bandwidth on C-Band spectrum. And from 24 June 2020, all customers with a Tele2 Unlimited subscription and a 5G compatible mobile phone from Samsung’s Galaxy S20 series, will get free access to Tele2’s 5G network.

Meanwhile Telia Sweden inaugurated its first major commercial 5G network in Stockholm. The network has been up and running for a number of weeks already. 15 base stations are already in place, and during June a further 60+ will be built. The 5G network will cover most of central Stockholm by Midsummer. Expansion of the network is underway in a further 12 cities including Gothenburg and Malmö, where it will be launched later this year.

During the spring, 15 base stations were upgraded with 5G in Stockholm, and the network is already up and running. A further 60+ are due to be completed during June in partnership with Ericsson. As a result, a significant part of Stockholm will be covered by 5G by the end of the May, including Norrmalm, Östermalm and Vasastan. Parallel to this, expansion of the network is taking place in a further 12 cities, including Gothenburg and Malmö, where it will be launched later this year.

The new 5G network will contribute to higher data speeds, lower latency and more efficient power consumption. Telia’s 5G network is powered by 100 percent renewable energy which has been certified by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. Telia’s 4G network will continue to play an important role in complementing the 5G network.

.@TeliaSverige launches 5G in Stockholm based on 700 MHz for now (awaiting 3.5 GHz auction in Nov). Will give indoor coverage but hardly the speed Tele2 can provide with its interim 80 MHz of C-band spectrum. https://t.co/fqcQZ3j1oO

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) May 25, 2020

Finally, Tre Sweden also announced they will be launching 5G services in Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg, Vasteras, Uppsala and western parts of Stockholm in June.This will be an expansion on their already-launched 5G network back in December 2019, when it announced testing.

The announcements have been made despite the fact that Sweden has not yet auctioned the allocation of frequencies in the 3.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands, which are key to 5G expansion due to their optimum balance of download speeds and coverage.

The operators have also been forced to be fairly inventive with spectrum for their new 5G networks because of the delay in the allocation of 5G-capable spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.5GHz bands. Telia is using its existing 700MHz spectrum assets, Tele2 is currently relying on 80MHz in the C-band and Three Sweden is using frequencies in the 2.6GHz band.

Anders Nilsson, CEO and president of Tele2, explained that Tele2 decided to buy additional frequencies in the C-band to allow it to launch "real 5G" before the summer.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has said the auction of frequencies in the 2.3GHz and 3.5GHz bands is due to start on November 10, 2020, with applications invited by June 30. It plans to sell "up to" 15 nationwide licenses in the 3.5GHz band, incorporating a maximum 320MHz of frequencies, and up to 80MHz in the 2.3GHz range.


Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: Telia 5G Strategy and Services
• Operator Watch Blog - Telia: Largest Operator in Nordic & Baltic Region

Telia 5G Strategy and Services

Telia is without doubt the leading European operator on 5G. They have partnered with Nokia among others for the introduction of 5G in Scandinavian countries like Finland and Sweden.

Telia' s 5G network which operates on test frequencies issued by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority was launched on September 2018. However 5G growth is of course dependent on availability of standard-compliant 5G devices, like modems, tablets and mobile phones by terminal manufacturers.    

Here we are looking at some of Telia's innovative and exciting collaborations, bringing 5G technology to the daily lives of people in Scandinavia.

One such initiative is the autonomous robot that will help carry out service tasks at Helsinki Airport after being connected to Telia Company's third 5G network in Finland. The robot, yet to be named, will oversee airport operations and also study the flow of passengers through the T2 terminal.

Telia and airport operator Finavia, which is Telia's first 5G customer, will research how staff and passengers react to the robot through real-time video feeds.  The robot will be connected to a Nokia 5G base station operating in the 28GHz band. This will be the first time in Finland that millimetre waves have been used publicly and Finavia is Telia's first 5G customer.

Telia Finland 5G Program Director Janne Koistinen said:

 "5G will start with enterprise customers, especially for industrial automation and remote control. The low-latency connection and massive capacity of 5G will serve the airport well with its masses of passengers and data, and with the focus on security and fluency of services."

Wile Heikki Koski, Chief Digital Officer, Finavia, said: 

"The robot can deliver real-time video stream from the terminal and enable for example monitoring the terminal area through remote or autonomous control and see that everything is running as it should. The robot can also guide passengers in the terminal, and we aim to try different use cases during the project."

Another project has been this driverless electric truck which has began daily freight deliveries on a public road in Sweden on May 15 2019, in what developer Einride and logistics customer DB Schenker described as a world first.

Einride's T-Pod is 26 tonnes when full and does not have a driver cabin, which it estimates reduces road freight operating costs by around 60% versus a diesel truck with a driver.

Besides Schenker, Einride has orders from German grocer Lidl, Swedish delivery company Svenska Retursystem and five Fortune 500 retail companies, underpinning its ambition to have 200 vehicles in operation by the end of 2020. Freight operators are under pressure to reduce delivery times, cut emissions and face a growing shortage of drivers.

The T-Pod has permission to make short trips – between a warehouse and a terminal – on a public road in an industrial area in Jonkoping, central Sweden, at up to 5 km/hr, documents from the transport authority show.

Robert Falck, the CEO of Swedish startup Einride, said the company was in partnership talks with major suppliers to help scale production and deliver orders, and the firm did not rule out future tie-ups with large truckmakers. Falck said Einride would apply next year for more public route permits and was planning to expand in the United States.

The T-Pod is level 4 autonomous, the second highest category, and uses a Nvidia Drive platform to process visual data in real time. An operator, sitting miles away, can supervise and control up to 10 vehicles at once.

However they are constrained by the rollout of 5G technology, vital for electrification, this was lagging. For Schenker's pilot with Einride, Ericsson and Telia had to construct two new towers.

Nokia’s 5G networking equipment is also involved with Telia in the development of self-driving vehicles. Nokia has been working for some time on LTE based car communications and is a member of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a strong proponent of 3GPP’s cellular-based technology called “cellular vehicle to everything” (C-V2X). This will enable the wide variety of communications that will be needed for the autonomous cars to run freely in our cities.

Nokia is busy not only with the creation of phones but also new 5G radios and software but with some other quite useful technologies.  Nokia has been testing together with Telia, and a company Sensible 4, a self-driving vehicle called Juto. Finnish people will know know that Juto is a word for a reindeer who always finds its way to home despite the weather condition. That word is an appropriate name for the self-driving vehicle that uses the 5G network to communicate with Nokia command center in real time.Nokia is doing tests with Juto on the streets of Espoo, and may expand to other cities in Finland. 

Telia has also partnered with Odeon in the development of the 5G cinema: so that big and little screens can share the same streaming technology.  Odeon is now operating the world’s first 5G movie theater, displaying films that have been transferred over a live 5G network.

As Odeon told ZDNet, the theater has found that livestreaming of theatrical films “works excellently” over 5G, though Odeon is largely using 5G to transfer the films to its own servers for repeated playback.

The distinction is critically important as it demonstrates that responsive, high-bandwidth 5G wireless could be a viable alternative to local storage, even in commercial settings where buffering or audiovisual degradation would be problems for hundreds of viewers at once. While 4G LTE networks may struggle to maintain fluid 720p video streams, theatrical films typically run at 4K or greater resolutions with far less compression.

Livestreaming 4K or higher-quality video at respectable frame rates is incredibly bandwidth-intensive, but Telia’s 5G network is up to the task. In its Odeon tests, Telia is achieving 2.2Gbps speeds, between 5 and 20 times the bandwidth of typical consumer 4G networks, and faster than the theater’s wired internet lines. That’s enough to let the cinema’s 5G hardware address its own downloading needs, as well as offering guest Wi-Fi access inside the building.

There are also positive implications for the speed of video distribution. In the past, theaters received physical reels of film that needed to be manually loaded into projectors for viewing, then rewound for subsequent playback, a process that was more recently replaced by less time- and space-consuming digital film distribution. With 5G, distribution can be instantaneous: Telia’s and Odeon’s observed 7-8 millisecond network response times are around one-fifth of 4G’s latency, which could allow theatergoers to participate in real time with live concerts or other events broadcast from remote locations.

Telia's 5G test network in Oslo has also made it possible to explore opportunities for individuals and families as well. At the home of a family of five, Telia and Get have set up what might be Norway's most modern home. The house has been filled with smart solutions from Futurehome, for example, accessing the latest entertainment from Get - all connected to the network through the 5G pilot.

“The family gets an easier, safer and more enjoyable everyday life. We like to call it everyday magic," says Torbjørn Aamodt, Product Director at Get and future head of Telia Consumer Home. 

"This family is far ahead of the rest of us, with a home filled with clever things connected through 5G. It is something the rest of us will not experience for several years, but it's really fun to see what we will get with the latest technology.”

Moreover, industrial applications of 5G will be one of the most important drivers for development and commercialization. One of the industries that will benefit greatly from the new technology is the construction industry. Telia cooperates with AF Group Bispevika, which will be one of the first to test 5G on one of its housing development projects. ¨

Telia Norway will contribute with mobile technology to help realize the ambitions of a site filled with sensors, phones, robots, artificial intelligence and expanded reality (AR)

According to Lars Petter Fritzsønn, Project Director of AF Byggfornyelse:

"The AF Group project in Bispevika is a lighthouse project and we are pleased to be among the first to use 5G. Today, efficient work processes at such a construction site are challenging, if the infrastructure is not yet available.”​

We look forward to following the progress of all these groundbreaking projects. What other Telia projects have you heard of? 

Telia: Largest Operator in Nordic & Baltic Region

Telia Company has been around for a while. The following is from about the company page:

KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

• Founded in 1853
• The share is listed at Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq Helsinki
• Approximately 483,000 shareholders
• From Norway to Turkey, we are present in, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Sweden, Turkey.
• 24.0 million subscriptions
• 20,400 employees

Like every other operator, Telia did a lot of tests and pilots on 5G last year. Here are a few notable announcements:


12 Apr 2018: Telia, Nokia and Intel bring 5G to the factory floor
12 Sep 2018: Telia Company and Stora Enso bring 5G and AR to the forest industry. The solutions were tested at Stora Enso’s Oulu mill in Finland where real-time information is being used in mill maintenance.
24 Sep 2019: Estonia’s first 5G network to go live. Telia Company, Ericsson and Tallinn University of Technology, TalTech, have joined forces to launch Estonia’s first 5G pilot network at the university campus by year-end.
20 Nov 2018: Telia opens 5G network in Finnish city of Oulu. A world-class industrial 5G ecosystem will be built in the Nuottasaari industrial area in Oulu, Finland, and with Telia launching a pre-commercial 5G network in the city
03 Dec 2018: Telia and Finavia bring 5G robot to Helsinki airport. Helsinki Airport becomes the first 5G airport in the world as Telia launches a 5G network and together with Finnish airport operator Finavia introduces a 5G-powered robot project.
18 Dec 2018: Telia Norway opened its first 5G test network in Norway, marking the beginning of next generation’s mobile networks in the country. First up to try it out is the Odeon movie theatre in Oslo, which is now the world's first 5G cinema.

Here is a video of 5G launch in Oslo, Norway


Here are Telia 5G 2019 objectives

Looks like Telia is just getting started with 5G with a lot more things in the pipeline.