Swisscom tests 5G applications for more remote locations
Swisscom will be rolling out the new 5G mobile network in Switzerland on a selective basis by the end of the year. But the telecommunications company is already testing various applications in the Bernese mountain village of Guttannen to ensure that 5G can also be brought to more remote locations.
The test will run until the end of the year, as Swisscom announced on Monday. In the municipality of Guttannen, which has only 300 inhabitants but is one of the largest municipalities in the canton of Bern with an area of 200 square kilometers, there will always be buildings that do not benefit from this expansion due to their remote location and therefore have to be connected in a different way, despite being connected to the fiber optic hybrid technology Fibre to the Street (FTTS).
This is where the 5G possibilities with fixed wireless access (FWA) and beamforming come into play, Swisscom wrote in a press release on Monday. Fixed Wireless Access connects individual buildings and apartments to fast Internet via mobile communications instead of cable, VDSL or fiber optics. In turn, beamforming will allow radio beams to follow a user in the future, thus ensuring even more efficient data transmission. Swisscom also tested this 5G function in Guttannen.
The measurement results would confirm the theoretically calculated increases in efficiency, but the strict NISV limits would prevent the efficient use of beamforming, the company writes. Swisscom has installed an additional mobile phone antenna in Guttannen. This transmits in the 3.5 Ghz frequency range, just as 5G will do. Three test customers have been fitted with the corresponding equipment and are using the 5G services of tomorrow on a trial basis.
The auction for mobile radio frequencies for the super-fast 5G technology is to take place next January, as the Federal Communications Commission Comcom explained to the media last Friday. Telecommunications companies have until October 5 to submit their application dossiers. The bidding race for the frequencies starts at CHF 220 million. This is the minimum price if there is demand for all frequencies. (SDA)
