Swisscom customers can now try gigabit LTE inside the operator’s own stores. Ericsson and Swisscom announced the rollout on November 3, 2017, and it relies on the Ericsson Radio Dot System.
The setup reaches download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps. To get there, it combines three LTE frequency bands through carrier aggregation, then adds 4×4 MIMO and 256QAM.
Shops in Bern, Fribourg and Zurich already have the equipment, though more are on the way. The plan is to bring gigabit LTE to 15 Swisscom shops by the end of 2017.
For shoppers, the change is practical. They can test what current smartphones, tablets and SIM cards are really able to do, since the store network no longer holds them back.
The wider aim is better indoor coverage and capacity. Places such as garages, elevators and commercial buildings are hard for outdoor signals to reach, so a dedicated indoor system fills the gap.
Dirk Wierzbitzki of Swisscom said the store rollout puts the network’s performance on display at a key point of contact with customers. Nishant Batra of Ericsson described the Radio Dot System as a key building block on the road to 5G.
Ericsson calls the Radio Dot System a cost-effective, modular indoor radio solution. More than 120 operators in over 70 countries have deployed it so far. It also runs in airports, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls and office buildings.
Ericsson is based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has more than 111,000 employees and serves customers in 180 countries, while its net sales in 2016 reached SEK 222.6 billion.
