Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat to begin 5G roll-out

Cyfrowy Polsat from Poland said that’s its Polkomtel unit had begun the roll-out of commercial 5G technology.

Cyfrowy Polsat aims to start serving 5G in seven cities in the first quarter.

The network will roll out using technology from Nokia and Ericsson, the broadcasting platform said.

5G expects to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.

But, its roll-out has been controversial as the United States presses allies not to use equipment from Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.

Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations, and industry players have warned that excluding Huawei could slow down the implementation of 5G and make it more expensive.

Earlier, Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat fined almost PLN35 million by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK).

The office says that it decided to do so following the company’s actions during Euro 2016.

It dropped the German channels ZDF and Das Erste from its program offer.

The two channels at that time showing games from the tournament that Polsat could watch if they subscribed to its basic offer.

Free coverage of some Euro 2016 games provided in Poland by the public broadcaster TVP1’s first channel.

However, others shown on the encrypted services Polsat Sport 2 and Polsat Sport 3.