A pilot 5G zone, the first of its kind, has been launched in the heart of the Russian capital on Thursday. Swedish telecom company Ericsson provided the equipment for the network, which is run by Russian mobile operator Tele2.

“Today's event means that the 5G era in Russia has already begun, after tests we are moving to use the technology via a commercial network,” Tele2 CEO Sergei Edmin said, announcing the launch.

The pilot zone for the super-fast network fully covers Moscow’s landmark Tverskaya street, from the Kremlin to the busy Garden Ring highway, the company said in a statement.

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“We are happy to launch the first 5G zone in Moscow,” the head of Ericsson’s division in Russia, Sebastian Tolstoy, stated.

Tele2 added that the special zone was created under Russia’s government-funded national program for the development of the digital economy. The project will be expanded to other Russian cities. 5G networks are set to be launched commercially in five cities with populations over a million by 2022, and will be deployed in 10 more cities by 2024.

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