Ericsson, one of the world’s leading providers of technology and services to telecom operators, has completed the first transglobal 5G data call over live commercial 5G networks, showcasing its Spectrum Sharing technology. Through their collaboration with 5G ecosystem industry leaders Qualcomm Technologies, Swisscom and Telstra, and using a 5G smartphone from Chinese manufacturer OPPO, Ericsson continues to demonstrate its drive towards commercial dynamic spectrum sharing.
The Swedish tech giant said that the November 29 data call connected Bern, Switzerland and the Gold Coast, Australia using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing deployed on Swisscom’s and Telstra’s commercial 5G networks at the respective sites. The call was achieved using spectrum sharing on a 3GPP Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band and pre-commercial OPPO 5G handsets employing the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System. Moreover, OPPO is the first 5G device manufacturer to implement Ericsson Spectrum Sharing in its smartphones.
As part of the Ericsson Radio System, their Spectrum Sharing technology is a complete dynamic spectrum sharing solution based on the 3GPP standard with additional intelligent scheduler algorithms. According to the company, this allows operators to use the same spectrum for both 4G and 5G services through a software upgrade, depending on the demands of their network. Ericsson said that switching between 4G and 5G carriers takes milliseconds, which minimizes spectrum loss and enables better user performance.
“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, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks at 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.”
Christoph Aeschlimann, Member of the Executive Board and Head of IT, Network and Infrastructure, Swisscom, said, “The first international end-to-end Ericsson Dynamic Spectrum Sharing call is the next step in our 5G journey. It was only possible with a well experienced team of provider, vendor, chipset and handset maker with a proven 5G track record.”
Channa Seneviratne, Network and Engineering Infrastructure Executive, Telstra, said, “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. 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.”
