The Swiss operator says it has reached another tech milestone, making a phone call between small cells in Ericsson’s office in Bern and one in the town of Liebefeld.
Ericsson 5G Radio Dot is a small cell designed to provide indoor coverage up to 2Gbps. Martin Buerki, Head of Ericsson Switzerland, explained, “Our 5G Radio Dot allows service providers to reuse…indoor network infrastructure as they upgrade from 4G.
“Building on the existing Radio Dot System architecture, [they] can upgrade and complement existing networks quickly and efficiently.”
Daniel Staub, Head of Joint Mobile Group at Swisscom, said, “The 5G Radio Dot System offers us a high performing and reliable network in indoor areas. We continue to expand our 5G network across Switzerland to deliver premium connectivity across the country.”
Long partnership
The deployment of the 5G Radio Dot System is the latest development in a long partnership between Ericsson and Swisscom for commercial 5G services.
It began when Swisscom selected Ericsson as its strategic partner for Gigabit LTE and 5G in November 2017.
Swisscom launched its 5G network in 102 locations in 54 towns in April and now is expanding into major cities, tourist areas and across the countryside.
Its aim is to offer coverage to 90% of the population by the end of 2019 with the help of Ericsson’s spectrum sharing technology.