Catalonia becomes the first open 5G laboratory in Europe

Catalonia has become a unique open environment for 5G experimentation in Europe, where any local or international entity that needs to validate its services and solutions in real environments can do so.

This is the result of a collaboration agreement between Orange, the i2CAT Foundation, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), within the framework of the 5G Barcelona alliance.

The purpose of the agreement is to implement a laboratory in which to experiment with the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and with 5G NR equipment for validating services in a 5G research and pre-commercial stage, in real environments and with a view to reducing project development times.

Through this agreement, and with a contribution by telecommunications company Orange worth over €2.5M, the company is making 5G Barcelona electromagnetic spectrum on the 5G 3.5 GHz band, points of access to 5G pilot network, LTE-M access points and connection to an EPC (core network) available for the validation of different use cases. 5G Barcelona is therefore extending its Open Lab offering in order to develop use cases that may become services in the near future.