Amongst all the excitement of approaching 5G rollouts, the Finnish operator Elisa has grabbed the headlines by officially announcing that they are the first operator in the world to begin commercial use of a 5G network.
Elisa’s first 5G network services were launched in Tampere (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia).
The first person to use the 5G network was Finland’s minister of Transport and Communications, Anne Berner, who made an international video call to Estonia’s minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure, Kadri Simson, using Huawei 5G terminal devices.
Even though there are no commercial 5G-compatible devices available to the public, Elisa is already offering two types of 5G subscriptions.
A significant hurdle that must be overcome for mass 5G rollouts is the issue of licensing. The Finish Ministry of Communications is set to allocate the first 5G licences for the 3.4-3.8 GHz bands in autumn, thereby enabling Finland to maintain their leadership role in mobile data usage.
