Føroya Tele interested in bringing 5G to Shetland and Orkney islands

Telecoms firm Føroya Tele is planning to offer its 5G network services to the Shetland and Orkney islands.

Páll Højgaard Vesturbú, who heads Føroya Tele’s network division FT Net, told Shetland News recently that although there are no concrete plans, Føroya Tele has for some time had an interest in branching out into mobile services in the two island groups.

This comes after the UK Government’s Scotland minister Iain Stewart visited the Faroes in May, where telecommunications was one subject on the table.

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“I don’t think our angle will be to come in and highly compete with the providers in the UK. I think that would not benefit anybody, not us at least. It should be more in co-operation and in agreement of some kind with some of the major operators,” Vesturbú told Shetland News.

“I think the operators in the UK, generally they want to focus on the larger areas where there’s large competition…to put extensive coverage in small populated areas, there’s really not a business case in it. But from our perspective, that’s how it is here in Faroe, so we’re used to building infrastructure with fewer customers."

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In related news, the two major telecoms firms in the Faroes, Føroya Tele and Nema, have started setting up 5G equipment in the Faroes.

“Once the 5G network is up and running at the turn of this year, internet speeds will increase ten-fold,” says Føroya Tele CEO Jan Ziskasen.

The two companies will set up separate networks. Føroya Tele’s 5G technology is developed in partnership with Swedish telecoms firm Ericsson.

Nema has not yet announced its 5G technology partner.

Read the Faroese version of this article here and here.

More Faroese News in English.