As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of September, 2019, Croatian Telecom (HT/Hrvatski Telekom) has announced that it plans to deploy as many as nine 5G base stations in the city of Osijek, Slavonia.
For a brief comparison, there are currently ten across the whole of the Republic of Croatia. Five of them are in Samobor and Sveta Nedelja, near Zagreb, four are on the island of Krk, and one is at the company headquarters building in Radnička Street in the City of Zagreb.
Boris Drilo, a member of HT’s board, said that they are considering such an investment in Osijek, because it is assumed that this city will most likely be chosen as the first Croatian 5G city, therefore, Osijek is where all three operators will test their 5G technology.
”We don’t know for sure whether it will be Osijek, because the 5G city is an EU initiative that came to the Croatian Government and then it called on cities to make contact, so, so far, we don’t have any information on which city was really selected. However, given the interest shown by Osijek, then Osijek Software City and other factors, it’s certain that this is an option,” says Drilo.
He added that they are interested in expanding their 5G infrastructure in other parts of the country too, and that he is open to cooperation with local government units. He explained that HT’s development path for 5G is very clear.
Firstly, they are currently working on a pilot phase of 5G, and they received the green light to test this technology on the 3.5 GHz to 100 MHz band in Krk, Samobor and Zagreb. He stated that they were able to achieve 1 Gbps data transfer and 58.2 Mbps uploads in real-world conditions.
Drilo emphasised, however, that this cannot be achieved everywhere, as the frequency bands are not yet fully prepared for 5G. Therefore, he sees the Croatian Government’s decision as the next step as to which city will be Croatia’s first 5G city, and, ultimately, for the commercialisation of 5G, he sees the improvement of 5G licensing conditions as a whole as necessary.
“For the 5G network only, HT would have to pay the same amount of frequency fees as for the existing spectrum, and that must change, because under such conditions, 5G will not be able to exist here in Croatia,” he says.
Hr went on to explain that the spectrum fees paid by HT are still 350 percent higher than those paid on average by other members of the Deutsche Telekom group. He added that while the government has taken steps to improve the situation, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
”It’s still an extremely high price and the whole telecommunications industry in Croatia has a unique attitude on this issue. We’re also discussing this with the regulator, and in addition, it should be borne in mind that 5G is a young technology, which offers a lot of potential to both society and the economy, but currently has limited commercial potential,” Drilo concluded.
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