Swiss get nationwide 5G coverage thanks to ‘5G milestone’ spectrum sharing

By Fiona Leake
published

Spectrum sharing between Ericsson, Swisscom, and Qualcomm will bring nationwide 5G coverage to Switzerland by the end of 2019.

Swisscom HQ
(Image credit: Swisscom)

Ericsson and Qualcomm made the world’s first 5G data call in September this year using spectrum sharing technology. And now the companies have teamed up again to offer such capability for Swiss telco, Swisscom. 

Leading the way 

Swisscom was actually the first service provider in Europe to launch 5G services in April this year. And the Swiss telecom company is now taking ambitious steps to bring 5G coverage to 90% of Switzerland before the end of the year. 

This is made possible by the spectrum sharing technology service, which allows providers to maintain their use of LTE to support the introduction of 5G. This makes the rollout much speedier and smoother. This is embedded into the Ericsson Radio System, designed to enable the transition of 4G to 5G - all through a software upgrade. 

This clever system will share spectrum between 4G and 5G carriers, adapting to the traffic demand. Impressively, the switch between carriers is only said to take milliseconds. This should allow a large-scale 5G roll-out across Switzerland to happen faster and cheaper than ever. 

Spectrum-sharing will be a key catalyst

"Spectrum-sharing will ensure that Swisscom can provide extensive 5G coverage to its customers as soon as possible.”

Patrick Weibel, Swisscom.

“Ericsson spectrum-sharing allows Swisscom to best leverage the existing frequency spectrum and infrastructure for 4G and 5G customers, depending on their needs,” explains Patrick Weibel, head of Swisscom’s 5G programme. “Spectrum-sharing will ensure that Swisscom can provide extensive 5G coverage to its customers as soon as possible.”

Dino Flore, vice-president, technology at Qualcomm Europe, added: “Coverage is the next killer app for 5G. Spectrum-sharing will be a key catalyst for nationwide 5G coverage, helping deliver ubiquitous 5G services to consumers.”

Ericsson and Qualcomm described the spectrum sharing data call as a “5G milestone”.



Fiona Leake
Fiona Leake

Fiona discovered her love for investing and making money from a young age. Since then this interest has grown and now she loves writing about investing and business, and follows the 5G market closely. She is also a technology enthusiast, and so they tend to be her favourite investments.