{"id":303,"date":"2025-11-28T09:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markoja.hr\/?page_id=303"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:33:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:33:34","slug":"vodeci-ljudi-telekoma-najavili-stotine-milijuna-eura-investicija-u-5g-mrezu-i-gotovo-u-potpunosti-umrezen-svijet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/markoja.hr\/en\/vodeci-ljudi-telekoma-najavili-stotine-milijuna-eura-investicija-u-5g-mrezu-i-gotovo-u-potpunosti-umrezen-svijet\/","title":{"rendered":"Telco leaders announce hundreds of millions of euros in 5G investments and a fully connected world"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5G NETWORK \u2013 DRIVER OF CROATIA\u2019S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Telco leaders announce hundreds of millions of euros in 5G investments and a fully connected world<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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31.03.2022.<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The development of the 5G network will attract enormous investments in both Croatia and worldwide, increase the total global GDP, as well as change everyday life and improve the economy, said the leading people of Croatian telecommunications companies at the \u201c5G&beyond\u201d conference, organized by 5G.hr and the company Markoja.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The panel discussion on the topic of \u201c5G Network \u2013 Driver of Croatia\u2019s Digital Transformation\u201d \u2013 regarding their investment plans and the future that the next-generation network promises \u2013 included the following speakers: CTIO of Hrvatski Telekom Boris Drilo, CTIO of A1 Croatia Branimir Mari\u0107, CTO of Telemach Croatia Nenad \u0160libar, and Boris Markoja, Board Member at Markoja.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>

Boris Drilo, CTIO of Hrvatski Telekom, emphasized that Croatian mobile networks were one of the best in Europe, which is why it takes a lot of effort by telcos to keep them at that level. He also opened a topic that worries all telecoms alike: the great pressure caused by inflation and rising electricity prices, which pose a challenge to the pace and volume of investments in the near future.<\/p>

\u201cThe goal of development, which is the 5G network everywhere, depends on the investment potential of the operator. 5G will consume significantly more electricity compared to existing networks, and we are facing unfavorable market trends. We are very careful about raising prices for customers, but there is great pressure due to increased rental and electricity costs,\u201d said Drilo, adding that Croatia is ahead of others in the number of base stations and that we are among the three European countries that have received licenses for new frequency bands.<\/p>

In this context, he stressed that telecoms were interested in strong investments, but that it was crucial to maintain the positive momentum created around the development of the fifth-generation network in the medium term. He pointed out that data traffic has increased tenfold in the last decade and that investments in infrastructure have been launched in order to maintain the quality of customer service, which in Croatia is at an enviable level compared to the rest of the world, as proven by a number of awards by global analytics companies.<\/p><\/div>

Branimir Mari\u0107, CTIO of A1 Croatia, also spoke about the increased costs, emphasizing that the price of electricity has more than quadrupled in the last few months. However, he said that every operator in Croatia is ready for large investments in both fiber optics and the 5G network. Thus, Mari\u0107 expects that every operator in Croatia will invest at least \u20ac100 million directly in infrastructure, along with hundreds of millions of Euros to be invested in fiber optic cables.<\/p><\/div>

The challenge will be to build infrastructure in rural areas, given that due to lower population density, investments per capita are many times larger than in cities. Boris Markoja, Board Member at the company Markoja, pointed out that the goal was to offer stable access to the new-generation network at affordable prices, and that support from the European Union was key in this aspect.<\/p>

\u201cPrices for residents of rural areas should be comparable or equal to the prices in urban areas, where the investment per subscriber is significantly lower. Therefore, in addition to EU funds, local authorities should provide support by approving the use of existing infrastructure to investors in telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas,\u201d said Markoja. When it comes to deploying 5G technology and 5G infrastructure, it is very important to highlight, he adds, that we should all be thinking about sustainable development.<\/p>

\u201cIt is important to build new infrastructure according to the 5E principles: energy \u2013 where we must consider efficient use; economy \u2013 that is, building new parts of the city\u2019s infrastructure so that investments are economically justified; ecology \u2013 taking care of the Earth; esthetics \u2013 ensuring that new parts of the network blend into the environment; and ethics \u2013 to provide internet access to all without harming anyone in the process of building the network. Respecting these 5Es, a significant part of the locations could be covered with environmentally friendly materials, and here we are primarily talking about the return of industrially laminated wood as a carrier of infrastructure,\u201d Markoja concluded.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cHundreds of millions of euros of investment should bring returns not only in the telecommunications sector but also throughout the economy, however, the multiplicative effects depend on the top of the pyramid,\u201d said CTO of Telemach Croatia, Nenad \u0160libar.<\/p>

\u201cSome estimates say that due to investments in digitalization, GDP at the EU level will increase by \u20ac100 billion, and in Croatia alone the positive contribution of 5G technology in the next ten years is estimated at 1.5 to 15 billion euros. How much it really will be depends on the ICT industry, as well as on the end users, especially in the public sector such as healthcare, on whose reform it depends whether they will use this opportunity,\u201d \u0160libar explained.<\/p>

And the opportunities for development are huge, all telecom leaders agree, because in the future we will have a world of networked devices and people, completely connected to the internet, and new technologies and services could completely change the habits and lifestyle of the average person.<\/p>

Thus, Boris Drilo believes in the potential of a changed reality, which could change the way we live, adding that HT is already building an infrastructure that will enable the full development of the metaworld and IoT.<\/p>

\u201cThe generation born after 2008 is the native<\/em> generation of the metaverse<\/em>, and it is for them that we are building the next phase of 5G technologies. Services and solutions will be created that will fully develop the potential of the 5G network, as was the case with the 4G network, which was a prerequisite for the explosion of applications and the use of smartphones,\u201d said Drilo, pointing out that we still lack real 5G-based apps and the so-called \u201ckiller application\u201d, which should mark a turning point in the way we use the network and connect all things and devices.<\/p>

That we are a step away from the goal in the context of developing full potential is also maintained by Mari\u0107, who points out that we are still waiting for the move that will network hundreds of thousands of devices and mark a real breakthrough, which 5G infrastructure enables.<\/p>

\u201c5G is an evolutionary technology that continues on the highly successful 4G. The general digitalization of society is now underway and people who don\u2019t know how to use the internet are partially outcast. We are facing the development of the Internet of Things and the number of connected devices per household is on the rise. We are currently on 5 and 10 connected devices per household, and not so far in the future, each household will have 50 to 100 connected devices,\u201d said Mari\u0107, adding that 5G is only the first phase of networking.<\/p>

After 5G comes 6G and with that generation comes an increase in spectrum efficiency, the use of much wider frequency bands and an increase in the number of devices that are connected, he explained.<\/p>

\u201cFor now, we have no idea what [6G] really brings, but I think we are moving towards a fully connected planet and it\u2019s likely there will be no corner of the world that is not connected,\u201d Mari\u0107 concluded.<\/p>

Such connectivity and robotization of services will bring numerous advantages, Nenad \u0160libar is convinced, claiming that in countries like Croatia, digitalization can increase in the quality of life of people in rural areas. He stresses the great potential in the application of 5G technologies in healthcare through remote treatment and consultations, from which the people who live outside the cities, i.e. who are far away from the best doctors, can benefit the most.<\/p>

\u201eUmjetna inteligencija ne nastaje sama po sebi nego\u00a0inputom<\/em>\u00a0\u201cArtificial intelligence is not created in and of itself but by human input, so this technology and the processing of huge amounts of data can help develop new human-centered services that improve quality of life,\u201d concluded \u0160libar.<\/p>

At the end of the panel, the host of the conference Boris Markoja noted in his closing remarks that technology must serve people, and that in the future it will be very important to draw the line between real and virtual life, which will become increasingly difficult for each new generation to come:<\/p>

\u201cAs far as technology is concerned, the future is limited only by our imagination. Soon there will be services on the market that today we think do not have users, but they will be created very soon, and there will be users who do not know about all the services that exist but may need them soon. It is important to enable the present generations to lead a normal life, with as much use of technology as they are ready to master in a shorter and shorter period of time, in light of the very rapid development of technology.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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