Catalonia will have the first open 5G laboratory that will serve the entire country

Catalonia will have the first open 5G laboratory that will serve the entire country, both urban and rural areas, and that will also be open to international initiatives.

The project is born from the agreement between the consortium 5G Barcelona and Orange, which will give the project access to its 5G network. 

The laboratory will allow to experiment with the latest mobile technologies and innovations from the of the Internet of Things in real scenarios throughout Catalonia, thanks also to the extension of the fiber optic network of the Catalan government. 

The minister of public administration, Jordi Puigneró, thanked the involvement of entities such as Orange, and explained that they have allowed the city to "have pioneering environments, infrastructures and experimental laboratories on an international level."

A similar lab is already open in the city, one that allows small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) test new technologies at the lab’s hub in Pier01. 

The Thinx / 5GBarcelona lab offers SMEs their services and applications for free, and comes with the aspiration of being "one of the European digital innovation hubs within the 5G field." 

The new possibilities that 5G will bring will transform our world of mobile technologies as we know it. The market disruption will likely change the landscape of mobile technology like no other generation. 

Some of the new horizons and opportunities have already been displayed at the Mobile World Congress, held annually in Barcelona. In this year’s edition, a surgery was performed remotely using 5G technology for the first time, in an ambulance equipped with a hi-res camera. 

Even though Catalonia will have to wait until 2021 until 5G is widely available, the Catalan government is already aiming to turn the country into a hub for this new technology.