5G

Swisscom deploys Ericsson’s 5G Radio Dot small cells

Swisscom has deployed Ericsson’s 5G Radio Dots in the carrier's live 5G commercial network. The two companies also completed a 5G data call between Ericsson’s office in the Swiss city of Bern and Swisscom’s office in nearby Liebefeld. The call took place over the 5G Radio Dot System during an event for Joint Mobile Day in Bern. 

Ericsson first introduced its Radio Dot indoor small cell in January 2018 to offer improved indoor performance for the needs of operators whose requirements couldn’t be met by outdoor Wi-Fi or 5G base stations.

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According to Ericsson, the new 5G Radio Dot allows users to easily upgrade from their 4G networks by using their existing indoor network infrastructure. This allows users to switch to the new system with local area network (LAN) cables.

The company has said that the 5G Radio Dot is built with future upgrades in mind, so that when the inevitable day comes for a company to bolster its technology, it can be done quickly and easily through software. “With an easy upgrade path, the Ericsson 5G Radio Dot is more than future-proof,” the company said. “It sets the standard for tomorrow's indoor coverage.”

This news comes after Ericsson and Swisscom’s joint announcement in April that they had enabled the first large-scale commercial 5G network in Europe. This was made possible when Swisscom obtained a commercial 5G license after putting in place all of the components necessary to operate such a network. Once the license was obtained, all that Ericsson and Swisscom had to do was turn the network on.

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Having initially taken its 5G network live in 102 locations in 54 towns, Swisscom plans to expand quickly in major cities and tourist areas across the country, and it says it intends to achieve 90% nationwide population coverage by the end of 2019 with the help of Ericsson’s spectrum sharing technology.