• Under the powers delegated by the European Commission, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency announced on December 16 that it had awarded EUR 15.535 million to Telia Sweden, Telia Finland and LMT*, the leading mobile operator in Latvia, for the development of a 5G Northern European Transport Corridor.

The 5G Northern European Transport Corridor (5G NETC) project, which started on May 1, 2022, and is scheduled to end on April 30, 2025, aims to improve cross-border network service continuity for already-established services while adopting 5G infrastructure in public environments to support new 5G services.

The 5G NETC project will deploy and configure dedicated 5G coverage for transport and logistics services along highways and railway corridors in the Northern European part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and North Sea-Baltic corridors.

Staffan Åkesson, Telia Sweden CTO, says: “We’re proud that the 5G Northern European Transport Corridor was selected by the European Commission as one of 39 projects to receive funding following the first Connecting Europe Facility – Digital program calls to help drive adoption of 5G and support the development of smarter and more sustainable transport systems. Together with Telia Finland and LMT, we will work to enable Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) application and service development and Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) use-case solutions for a more user-centric and inclusive mobility system."

5G NETC will also lay a foundation for service continuity when a vehicle crosses a member state border by improving the handover for data-connection sessions from one Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) to another. This handover is expected to become increasingly important to support use cases such as dedicated 5G connectivity to meet requirements for connected ambulances, remotely controlled vehicles and trains. Improved handover will be introduced at selected border crossings.

Jari Collin, Telia Finland CTO, says: “Together with Telia Sweden and LMT, we will enable full-scale use of the first versions of CCAM) services in public environments, thereby creating a more user-centric and inclusive mobility system and increasing road safety while reducing congestion and environmental damage.”

Juris Binde, LMT President and Chairman of the Management Board, says: “We’re excited to work together with Telia Sweden and Telia Finland to Drive 5G service and application development as an enabler of CCAM and FRMCS services and to close the gap between the two layers. 5G has the potential to radically change the way data is transported and used, and we aim to enable a wide range of new industrial use cases that have profound benefits for society.”

*Telia Company owns a 60.3% stake in LMT