Swisscom and Ericsson aim to launch commercial 5G in 2020
Swiss mobile operator Swisscom has partnered with Swedish vendor Ericsson to launch the ‘5G for Switzerland’ initiative in collaboration with local university Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).
The three parties involved in the 5G program are currently testing applications with industrial partners in various sectors, such as smart transportation and virtual reality. The research results will support the definition of international standards for 5G with completion planned for 2019.
“5G is still in the early stages of development. For Swisscom it is essential to be in on the planning from the start, preparing for future applications,” Swisscom’s CTO Heinz Herren said.
“We are delighted to partner with Swisscom and EPFL to extend our ‘5G for Europe programme’ to Switzerland where we can address the innovation potential that 5G communications technology will bring by working together with local industries,” Martin Buerki, Ericsson Head of Switzerland, added.
The ‘5G for Switzerland’ initiative is part of Ericsson’s European ‘5G for Europe’ program. The Swiss operator aims to launch a commercial 5G network by 2020.
The European telco ended last year with over 6.6 million customers in the mobile telephony segment.
T-Mobile’s LTE-A network reaches 96% of Dutch population
In other EMEA news, Dutch operator T-Mobile Netherlands confirmed that its LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network which was launched in January this year has been extended to its entire 4G system, which reaches 96% of the population.
The LTE-A network uses carrier aggregation across the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands.
T-Mobile Netherlands, which is fully owned by German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom, ended the first quarter of 2016 with 3.66 million subscribers in the mobile telephony segment.
The telco had initially launched commercial LTE networks in the Dutch market in May 2012. The operator currently offers LTE technology through spectrum in the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2.6GHz bands.
Rival operators KPN, Vodafone and Tele2 have already launched their own LTE-A networks.
