Vodafone on Friday announced that it has installed a 5G node in Madrid’s La Nave innovation centre to coincide with an ongoing networking and innovation event.
The mobile operator said it deployed the 5G network node in conjunction with Huawei with a view to encouraging innovators to test, prototype and explore technologies in a real-world environment.
Vodafone also shared details of a small form-factor, programmable autonomous mobile network system, known as OPEN CrowdCell, which is about the size of a book. Participants in the #Barbac0d1ng event, which runs weekly between June and October, are able to program multiple software applications using the system.
The telco is also involved in a crowdfunding campaign alongside semiconductor company Lime Microsystems that is designed to further to development of 5G apps. The campaign includes the availabilty of a low-cost first version of OPEN CrowdCell.
Vodafone has been quick out of the blocks with 5G in Spain. In July the operator revealed that, again working with Huawei, it had begun rolling out pre-commercial 5G infrastructure in major Spanish cities.
That announcement came just days after Vodafone was named among the winners of 5G spectrum in the country’s latest auction; it secured 90MHz of spectrum in the 3.7GHz band and 20MHz of TDD spectrum at 2.6GHz.