Ericsson said it has deployed its Ericsson Radio Dot System solution for Swisscom

Ericsson said it has deployed the Ericsson Radio Dot System solution for Swisscom, with the aim of allowing the European operator to deliver high-capacity indoor 5G to enterprise customers within a 10 kilometers radius, from one centralized location.

In a release, Ericsson noted that the new solution will enable Swisscom to use fiber and hybrid fiber cables to deliver power and data to active indoor antennas from the indoor radio unit (IRU) and extend the cables’ reach from 300 meters to 10 kilometers.

The Swedish vendor also highlighted that this solution increases scalability across different venues and deployment use cases. It allows Swisscom to serve more venues with high-capacity indoor 5G faster with up to 80% less equipment needed on premises and less service effort, according to Ericsson.

Mark Düsener, head of mobile networks at Swisscom, said: “High-performing indoor 5G is key to full scale societal digitalization, and Ericsson’s new indoor fiber capabilities boost the capacity and coverage of Swisscom’s leading 5G network. With more flexible in-building deployment options, we can provide more small-to-medium enterprise customers with fast and reliable mobile connectivity, with less equipment.”

Meanwhile, Nils Andersson, head of indoor at Ericsson, said that this deployment will enable Swisscom to continue to expand their 5G footprint while reducing total cost of ownership and increasing operational efficiency. “It’s always exciting to help our customers tapthe opportunities that the small-to-medium enterprise market presents,” Andersson said.

The first fiber deployment was made in a Swisscom store near Bern, Switzerland. A Radio Dot was connected to a shared IRU hundreds of meters away in a central office using existing fiber infrastructure.

Ericsson also said that up to eight small-to-medium venues can be served from one remote unit. This new fiber-extended reach offering is compatible with both single operator and multi-operator indoor solutions, according to the vendor.

In December 2022, Swisscom had announced the launch of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for business customers. Swisscom had said that the FWA solution works for remote buildings not covered by its standard network expansion, as well as and temporary business locations without a fixed network connection.

Swisscom’s “Enterprise Connect” network solution enables customers without a fiber or copper connection to integrate one or more business locationstheir office networking via 5G FWA.

The European carrier also highlighted that 5G FWA technology can also be used as a 5G mobile backup.

Swisscom covers 99% of the country’s population with 5G that uses Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, which borrows capacity from its LTE spectrum.

The telco’s 5G+ service, which uses frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, currently covers over 70% of Switzerland.

The carrier’s 5G network was commercially launched in April 2019 using equipment from Swedish vendor Ericsson. In an initial phase, the 5G technology was launched 54 cities and communities in Switzerland, including Zürich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne and Lucerne.