90% 5G coverage in 2019. How to turn the impossible into reality.

Swisscom is working intensively on the 5G rollout, with the aim of achieving 90% coverage for the Swiss population by the end of the year. There are two different rollout phases within the Swisscom 5G launch: 5G fast and 5G wide. Under the “5G fast” label we upgrade the radio units of our sites with the new 3.5 Ghz frequency band and operate 5G NR on 3.5Ghz. Aggregating 5G on this band together with 4G on other frequency bands allows achieving speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s and promises significantly more in the future. While this approach allows much higher peak rates, the roll-out process is slow and will take years to complete.  

Therefore, under the “5G wide” label we want to achieve extensive 5G coverage of Switzerland quickly. By activating Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in our network, 5G wide will facilitate rapid 5G rollout. Customers will therefore benefit of 5G NR, resulting in slightly higher speeds, faster response times and wider bandwidths than on our 4G LTE network. We will activate 5G on our 2.1Ghz frequency across our network during the final quarter of 2019 and will cover 90% of Swiss population. Some people call this false 5G because it doesn’t operate on 3.5Ghz. However, it is important to note that 5G (and also 4G) is not linked to a specific frequency and it is exactly the same 5G NR running on 2.1Ghz and 3.5Ghz. In the future we will also deploy 5G NR on other low-band frequencies specifically to increase indoor coverage. 

Spectrum sharing – two technologies on the same frequency 

Spectrum sharing allows the same carrier frequency to be used simultaneously by 4G and 5G traffic without refarming. The DSS software from our network equipment supplier Ericsson uses smart scheduling algorithms which dynamically apportion the available spectrum within the same carrier frequency between 4G and 5G on the basis of the actual bandwidth requirement. This ensures that optimum use is made of the limited spectrum available to us as a telecommunications operator. For example, with dynamic spectrum sharing, if 20 MHz is available then 4G or 5G is shared dynamically based on actual customer usage. Allocation of the 4G and 5G capacity required at the same time is adjusted every millisecond. This guarantees optimum performance for any given combination of 4G and 5G devices that are active in the network and ensures that customers can access the bandwidth that they actually need for their application. Without spectrum sharing, this 20MHz would need to be split between the 4G and 5G technologies, with just 10MHz being allocated to each. This would mean that half the original spectrum would need to meet the needs of all the 4G traffic within that cell, while the remainder would be exclusively designated for 5G traffic, even if only very few people would use a 5G phone in the beginning! Rapid rollout on the mobile network is a further advantage of this model. 5G-ready base stations and corresponding radio units need to be installed to enable spectrum sharing to be used. Once the base station software has been upgraded, it can be rolled out across the mobile network, allowing a smart, flexible and rapid launch of 5G on the mobile network alongside the existing 4G carrier frequencies. On the customer side, you need a smartphone that is capable of handling DSS. We expect that first phones with DSS to be on the market in early 2020.  

Customer value 

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) is more than a technological innovation. It also ensures that we, as telecommunication operators, can provide extensive 5G coverage to our customers as soon as possible, while at the same time ensuring maximum capacity for current 4G customers.

5G will create new opportunities for residential customers and businesses across Switzerland. 5G is the new mobile communication standard, enabling the extremely fast connection of millions of people, devices and things. By providing 90% population coverage as the first operator on Switzerland, we allow all companies and developers in Switzerland to start building, testing, rolling out new 5G applications. We expect this will spur lots of innovative new applications for our customers.  

#5G #christophaeschlimann #innovation #swisscom #ericsson