Orange Spain said it has teamed up with Ericsson to install a network in the rural locality of Castro del Rey in Galicia that uses Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) as alternative to fibre. Specifically, the partners have set up a 5G node (gNodeB) co-located with an LTE node (eNodeB) to provide high-speed broadband services to local company Agroamb. The operator set up a joint venture with Cinfo, Gammera Nest and Optare Solutions to carry out the use case.
The pilot is part of the National 5G plan promoted by Spain's ICT development agency Red.es with funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Orange added that the application of the FWA technology can be easily extended to other companies located in remote areas without access to fibre-optic networks.
Orange last year won a Spanish government tender to conduct 5G real-world trials costing EUR 26 million in the regions of Valencia, Galicia and the Basque Country.
