The national 5G strategy will be ready by the end of the year, Bogdan Cojocaru, the communications minister, told Agerpres.

The implementation of the technology is expected to bring USD 9 billion investments by 2026, the minister said. The investments will cover areas such as energy and utilities, public safety, financial services, health, transport, auto, retail and agriculture.

“Romania needs digitalization, this aspect is clear for everybody. We do well on a series of indicators, such as the internet infrastructure expansion and the number of users, but we still have work to do in this direction. The national strategy for 5G, a telecommunication standard that will support the increase of the digitalization of the government services provided to the population and companies, will be finalized by the end of the year,” Cojocaru said.

When it is completed, the strategy will be put up for public debate.

According to EU’s development strategy, each member state needs to have at least one 5G-connected city by 2020.

Telecom operators present on the local market have already started preparing for the 5G launch. This July, Orange Romania and its partners Samsung and Cisco carry out in Romania the first European test of the 5G multi-vendor Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) in real environment conditions. Last year, RCS & RDS selected Swedish group Ericsson’s local subsidiary to upgrade its mobile network in Romania and prepare it for the 5G technology.

Romanian telecom regulator head wants country’s major cities 5G covered within 5 years

editor@romania-insider.com