On June 24, 2019, Telia Company and Luleå University of Technology in Sweden inaugurated a 5G-testbed. The project aims as fostering digital solutions of tomorrow and the testbed will be open for businesses and academia.
The Wireless Innovation Arena project has a total budget of 12 million SEK and will last for three years. In addition to Luleå University of Technology, Ericsson, Telia and Tieto participate in the project. Funding comes from the EU Regional Development Fund (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth), Region Norrbotten and Luleå municipality.
The testbed in Luleå will be home to the development of new 5G-digital services developed by businesses and organisations. “We’re now creating the prerequisites for businesses to further advance their products and services. Luleå University of Technology has a clear ambition to be at the forefront of technological development. 5G has the capacity to reduce the obstacles that sometimes exist with great distances in the Arctic region, and I believe that 5G can play an important role,” says Mats Lundbäck, Head of Business Innovation at Telia Sweden.
5G will have a major impact on the industry and enable value-creating innovation in several sectors. Both public and private businesses have a lot to gain from the new test environment and the opportunities for innovation the 5G-testbed creates.
“The 5G-testbed offers unique opportunities for innovation and business development. The purpose of the Wireless Innovation Arena project is to establish a research and innovation environment within the fifth-generation mobile networks where companies, students and organisations can test new ideas and applications. It is an important contribution to the university’s partnership ambition to establish northern Sweden as an attractive test region,” says Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn, Vice-Chancellor, Luleå University of Technology.
She adds: “The infrastructure is crucial for all technological development in healthcare, learning, mining and other industry. The University has made major investments in research related to data centres, Machine Learning and Artifical Intelligence, and the 5G techology is a prerequisite to drive those investments forward. We cannot be excellent in those research areas if we are not at the forefront of digital technology, and 5G is the future. This installation is also an important contribution to the University’s work to establish northern Sweden as an attractive test region.”