The milestone showcased use of Ericsson’s Spectrum Sharing offering that dynamically shares spectrum between 4G and 5G carriers based on traffic demand. During the trial the data call connected Bern, Switzerland and Gold Coast Australia, with Ericsson Spectrum Sharing deployed in Swisscom and Telstra’s commercial 5G networks. The call leveraged spectrum sharing in a 3GPP Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band. In addition, using pre-commercial 5G phones from OPPO, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System where used at both ends of the call.
“This industry-first highlights the value that Ericsson Spectrum Sharing has to communication service providers as they roll-out and ramp-up 5G,” said Fredrik Jejdling (pictured), executive vice president and head of networks, Ericsson. “With this milestone achieved with our 5G ecosystem partners OPPO, Qualcomm Technologies, and customers Swisscom and Telstra, we’ve shown that our unique solution will not only enable service providers to re-use their 4G spectrum assets for 5G but that it will also support all 5G devices. It is the most economically feasible way to launch 5G on existing bands, enabling nationwide 5G coverage and helping make 5G accessible around the world.”
The successful trial validates the support for Ericsson Spectrum Sharing across its 5G ecosystem, from chipsets to 5G devices, and communication service providers’ network products and solutions. The strengthening of the ecosystem is also a step towards the commercial introduction of Ericsson Spectrum Sharing.
"We are very excited to reach yet another 5G milestone with our partners. The first international end-to-end Ericsson Dynamic Spectrum Sharing call is the next step in our 5G journey,” added Christoph Aeschlimann, member of the executive board and head of IT, network & infrastructure, Swisscom. “It was only possible with a well experienced team of provider, vendor, chipset and handset maker with a proven 5G track record."
Through Ericsson Spectrum Sharing service providers can quickly launch 5G services over a wide area and successively expand 5G coverage in a tailored way by re-using existing network infrastructure and taking advantage of previous spectrum investments. This in turn enables communication service providers to provide 5G commercial services and move towards standalone (SA) 5G without the need for blanket costly re-investment.
“This latest collaboration of industry partners is paving the way for the faster rollout of 5G by using existing spectrum holdings to serve the needs of 4G and 5G customers in the same location at the same time,” said Channa Seneviratne, network and engineering infrastructure executive, Telstra. “This collective implementation is yet another innovative example of how 5G technology continues to advance in a rapid fashion, and at Telstra we are pleased to bring that latest technology to Australians first.”
Following on from Swisscom’s commercial launch of 5G services of April 2019, with Ericsson as its sole 5G vendor, the company plans on reaching 90% population coverage by the end of 2019. In turn, Telstra partnered with Ericsson as a key network partner with its launch of commercial 5G services in May 2019. It has 5G sites in 25 metro and regional cities across Australia with another 10 cities to be added by 30 June 2020.
