Orange on Monday started offering 5G service in five of the largest cities in Spain, less than a week after rival Telefonica rolled out its own service in the whole country.
Orange provides all its customers in the central areas of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Malaga with 5G service at no additional cost on their telecom bill, the company said in a statement.

European telecoms operators are starting to roll out 5G to consumers and businesses, offering super-fast download speeds for smartphone users and supporting so-called smart devices and factories.

Orange plans to expand the 5G coverage to other Spanish cities later on.

Orange is responding to Telefonica, which launched a nationwide 5G service last Tuesday, with the goal of bringing the 5G mobile internet to 75 percent of the Spanish population this year.

Ericsson said its 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core products and solutions are powering Orange Spain’s 5G services in Madrid and Barcelona, the nation’s two largest cities, following the communication service provider’s September 7 nationwide commercial 5G launch.

Ericsson’s initial 5G deployments in Madrid and Barcelona will be followed by other locations under a four-year partnership to help Orange Spain develop its 5G offering across Spain.

Operating on 3.6GHz spectrum, the 5G network in Madrid and Barcelona is powered by the Ericsson Radio System (Baseband 6648 and AIR 6488 antenna), delivering Massive MIMO, a key technology that significantly increases network capacity and spectral efficiency.

Ericsson supplies Orange Spain with a 5G Evolved Packet Core to support 5G New Radio non-standalone (NSA), including control plane, user plane and policy network functions, said Arun Bansal, president of Ericsson Europe and Latin America.

Ericsson, one of the leading telecom network suppliers, has 108 commercial 5G agreements and contracts with unique service providers, of which 58 are publicly announced 5G deals, including 60 live commercial 5G networks.