Orange promises top speeds of 1.2Gbps for 5Gin Romania. Initially, the launch will cover 3 key cities and very quickly expand to more towns and cities in early 2020.
The first country in Orange’s portfolio to launch next-generation mobile network services in Romania. Romanian cities of Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and Iasi, are the main cities where Orange launched 5G services with other cities to follow in the coming months.
In the beginning, the Orange 5G network will offer an average speed of 600Mbps with top speeds of around 1.2Gbps. As it acquires more spectrum and densifies its network, Orange has promised to increase the speed. An interesting element introduced is the number sharing eSIM feature. With a single bill, several devices can be connected simultaneously. At present this is only between a smartphone and a wearable device but other products like cars and PCs managing the connectivity bill with a single number will become challenging.
Ramon Fernandez, CEO Delegate of Orange in charge of Finance, Performance, and Europe said that he was very happy that, being one of the most dynamic telecoms markets in Europe, Romania is the first country within the global footprint to have achieved this important milestone. He also added that Orange Romania was important for them, both in terms of investments and driving innovation. They have invested more than 3.5 billion euros since they entered the market. Today’s 5G launch, along with innovations like eSIM and Number Sharing, will serve as key use cases for further development. This will enhance the Group’s ambitions to deliver an unmatched experience to the customers as Orange begins their migration towards the next generation of networks.
The network will offer internet download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps and an average download speed of 600 Mbps. It will also deliver a complete package of premium services. The gadgets have been devised and designed to enhance the 5G experience for customers including unlimited internet over 9 GB mobile roaming within the EU, unlimited voice calls and SMS facilities both nationally and in roaming.
Orange Romania has significantly involved itself in Europe ‘s Horizon 2020 research and development projects: MATILDA, Slice Net, 5G-EVE and 5G-VICTORI. It is also contributing to the standardization and development of 5G technology. Other than Romania, Ericsson and Orange Polska launched a 5G test network in Warsaw, Poland which includes nine sites in the Warsaw district of Ochota and Powisle.
In August 2019 the telecom had announced that its operation in France is in the “pre-commercial phase”, and the Orange is gradually introducing 5G on existing 4G sites throughout the country.
In July 2019 Romania’s first 5G commercial service was launched by pay-tv and DIGI, a fixed internet provider, in several parts of Bucharest. DIGI introduced Ericsson ‘s 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software on top of its 4G network. This has allowed the customers to connect to both 4G and 5G simultaneously and get the best possible experience even in a very crowded locality.
There are over 62 million 4G Orange customers across the world and will be looking ahead to key 5G launches in its home market of France, as well as Belgium and Spain, in 2020.
