Ericsson this week announced that it has secured an exclusive 5G Core and Radio Access Network (RAN) deal with the Faroe Islands’ leading and incumbent communications service provider (CSP) Faroese Telecom (Føroya Tele).
As part of the new partnership, Faroese Telecom will use Ericsson’s leading technologies, to fully modernize their existing network.
The deal is a significant step towards unlocking the full potential of 5G services and use cases across the Faroe Islands, the 18 rocky, volcanic islands between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean. The self-governing archipelago is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark and has a total area of about 1,400 square kilometers with a population of 53,400.
With 18 islands connected by bridges, tunnels, subsea tunnels and ferries, Faroese Telecom is striving to provide mobile signal anytime, anywhere, even deep underground.
The modernized network has the potential to transform the Faroe Islands’ main industry: fishing. In addition to serving vessels and fishing boats offshore through even better coverage, lower latency, and higher speeds, the 5G network to be deployed can be combined with Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable new use cases and bolster sustainability efforts in the region including safety improvement, autonomous navigation, route monitoring for fuel volume control and gas emissions.
The rollout of 5G and the full modernization of Faroese Telecom’s current 4G network will use Ericsson’s 5G RAN and Core products and solutions, including the Ericsson Radio System portfolio that covers Massive MIMO and Ericsson Antenna System. The deployment will commence immediately and is expected to be completed in 2023.
Jan Ziskasen, CEO, Faroese Telecom
Faroese Telecom has high ambitions for the network – we are aiming at world-class coverage, speed and capacity. The Faroe Islands is one of the best-connected countries in the world with 97.2 percent geographical coverage of 4G reaching even 100 kilometers out to sea.
Jan Ziskasen, CEO, Faroese Telecom
The newest subsea tunnel, Eysturoyartunnilin, is 11 kilometers long and 187 meters deep, and even has a roundabout. After the modernization, this will be the first undersea tunnel where you can roam on 5G whilst driving through a roundabout under the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.
