Leaders reach agreement on 5G throughout island (Updated)

Unficyp on Friday confirmed an agreement has been reached between President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar to introduce 5G across the island.

According to a statement, the agreement was reached thanks to “extensive work carried out by the Technical Committee on Broadcasting and Telecommunication over the past two years”.

In addition, it was concluded by Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis and the Turkish Cypriot Special Representative, Ergün Olgun, with the facilitation of the UN secretary-general’s general advisor on Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar.

Based on the terms of the agreement, TV broadcasting systems will be removed from the 700 MHz frequency band, transitioning from analogue to digital broadcasting, with the support of the EU, allowing the allocation of the 700 MHz frequency band to 5G mobile services.

It is understood that the 5G is on the 700MHz frequency band, and so is the north’s TV broadcasting system. The effort is for the TV broadcasting systems to be digitised and thus removed from the 700MHz frequency, to be used for the purposes of 5G.