CEE gets EU funds for cross-border 5G

The EU has selected seven projects to co-fund 5G transport corridors connecting regions throughout Europe, improving road, rail, inland waterways, and multimodal transport. They will support 5G infrastructure deployment over cross-border sections of 5G corridors and ensure service continuity when border crossing. 

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is well represented in the EU’s Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) programme organised by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), with Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, Czechia, Croatia and Slovenia all involved. 

The other projects elsewhere in Europe cross the Irish Sea; France and Belgium; and Italy and France. Three of the projects will start deploying the needed infrastructure immediately, four inception studies will set the groundwork for large-scale 5G infrastructure deployment projects in the future. The EU awarded 15 similar projects last December.

Bulgaria and Serbia 

5G Balkans has the goal of establishing uninterrupted connectivity covering the Bulgaria-Serbia border with dark fibre and enhanced radio network capacity. CETIN Bulgaria, CETIN LTD and Sofia Technical University will work together, covering the Sofia-Dimitrovgrad border along the “Orient-East-Med” Belgrade-Sofia-Kalotina core network corridor.

The EUR 3.36mn project also aims to deploy enough Radio Access Network capacity to deliver CAM in these areas, enabling automated cars within a 2.88km inter-site distance. 

Poland and Czechia  

The EUR 2.06mn BALTCOR5G project will deploy 5G and V2X infrastructure cross-border between Poland and Czechia, including bilateral sections along the Baltic-Adriatic 5G Corridor to enable high quality network coverage and handover. 

Towerlink Poland and CETIN AS will develop novel business models to provide digital services in market failure areas. 

Slovenia and Croatia 

The EUR 735,000 5G-ADRIA project will plan 5G infrastructure to support future traffic-related services along TEN-T transport corridors in Slovenia and Croatia, connecting core ports in Koper, Slovenia, and Rijeka, Croatia. The route will span from Koper via capital Ljubljana, to the Bregana border crossing into Croatia, continuing to Zagreb and Rijeka. The study mainly investigates this 378km corridor.

Telemach Slovenija will lead a group of companies to introduce standardised CAM services with improved traffic information and management, which requires better 5G coverage.

Italy and Slovenia 

The EUR 343,000 5G-SITACOR inception study will assess the technical requirements needed to fully provide the TEN-T Mediterranean and Baltic-Adriatic corridors. It has a particular focus on cross-border sections between Slovenia and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.  

Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia will lead a team to assess whether 5G neutral host and gigabit solutions can support this corridor.