Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 03 | Page 34

LATEST INTELLIGENCE LATEST REGIONAL PROJECT UPDATE UK BT has announced an extension to its Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement, using its EE network, with the UK supermarket chain ASDA. The new deal will include access to 4G services for the first time and will allow ASDA Mobile customers to enjoy faster speeds on their mobile devices from the spring. The agreement is an extension of the previous five-year contract signed by EE, now part of BT Group plc, in August 2014 and takes the exclusive contract to the end of 2020. EE’s 4G coverage today reaches almost three quarters of the UK’s landmass and this will extend to 95% of the country by 2020. ASDA Mobile expects to switch its customers across from 3G to 4G services during the spring. SPAIN Telefónica has presented the 5G Technological Cities project, which will lead the way towards 5G in Spain, with the initial deployment of 5G capabilities in the cities of Segovia and Talavera de la Reina, in partnership with Nokia and Ericsson. Telefónica will convert the two cities into 5G living laboratories over the next three years (2018–20), with pioneering capabilities including the initial 5G capacity, the deployment of the new 5G network and the development of use cases which allows citizens and companies to benefit from the advantages of the technology. Priority will thus be given to the citizens of Segovia and Talavera de la Reina, enabling them to benefit from the improvements to the network’s speed and capacity, as it will be deployed throughout the urban centres in such a way that the two cities will progress towards digitalisation and experience the advantages of technological innovation. 34 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com