Ericsson and Intel are spending so much time together these days that people are starting to talk.

Having been seen walking hand-in-hand through Beijing earlier in the week, ostensibly in the name of field-testing 5G multi-vendor interoperability over the 3.5 GHz band, the glamourous pair made their way to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia today. By complete coincidence that is also the location of a meeting of the EU’s leaders, so that should ensure a nice lot of paparazzi will be milling around, looking for choice photo opportunities.

The pretext for this European leg of the couple’s world tour is the deployment by Telia of what it claims are the first 5G live network use cases. Ericsson and Intel are helping out with these projects, which include a 5G connection to a passenger cruise ship and a construction excavator remotely controlled over 5G.

Gabriela Styf Sjöman, Global Head of Networks, Telia Company says: “We want to be early with 5G and will bring it to life in Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinki in 2018,” said Gabriela Styf Sjöman, Global Head of Networks at Telia. “We work together with our partners in the whole ecosystem to explore the powerful effect it is going to have for our customers and in society.

“It’s not only about building a new network but it’s also about building a new way of thinking and perceiving what a mobile network can be and can do. High speed, low latency, guaranteed capacity and truly mobile is going to push the boundaries of digitalization and we want to be there pushing it together with our partners.”

“Our own report about the 5G business potential identifies a huge opportunity for telecom operators globally who address industry digitalization with 5G,” said Arun Bansal, Head of Europe and Latin America at Ericsson. “We foresee that they can benefit from a market opportunity of $582 billion by 2026 and this represents a potential to add 34 percent growth in revenues. Capturing this market potential requires investment in 5G technology as well as business development, and go-to-market models.”

“Our work together trialing early usages of 5G technologies and the experiences it will bring to different industries, demonstrates the importance of collaboration and the need for seamless flow of data across the network, cloud and devices to make 5G a reality,” said Asha Keddy, GM of the Next Generation and Standards Group at Intel. “Intel’s 5G platforms are critical enablers for today’s active, real-world 5G trials with service providers around the globe, providing crucial insights and helping to define the future of 5G.”

As well as giving our leaders the setting for a slap-up dinner at our expense, Tallinn is also hosting the EU Digital Summit. This is the latest in an entrenched campaign by the Eurocracy to be seen to be keeping up with the US and Far East when it comes to emerging tech trends. Ericsson and Intel seem to have decided that getting in with the public sector is a good way enhance their own 5G credibility as well as a potentially handy source of public subsidy.