Sunrise puts Switzerland’s first 5G antenna

Six months after setting a 5G world record, Sunrise puts Switzerland’s first 5G antenna into operation.

“5G is the technology that will enable future applications like self-driving vehicles, IoT (Internet of Things), networking infrastructure with devices and people, and real-time control of critical production processes, just as a few examples. As 5G pioneers, we will demonstrate the benefits of high-bandwidth connections up to 1 Gbps – for both business and private customers as early as 2020, even without a fiber optic connection,” says Olaf Swantee, CEO, Sunrise, about this milestone.

“For this demonstration today, we provided our latest 3GPP based 5G New Radio equipment and CPE which enables Sunrise to be one of our first customers in Europe, who can show the public the potential of 5G in end-to-end environment. The willingness of Sunrise to implement 5G as early as possible, shows their spirit in innovation and we are proud to be their trusted technology supplier also in 5G,” says Wang Haitao, CEO, Huawei Switzerland.

Starting in 2020, Sunrise will focus on “5G for People” as the area with the greatest potential. 5G makes it possible to deliver the bandwidth of fiber optics over a mobile network using just a 5G Wi-Fi hotspot and a 5G mobile network connection. Sunrise will show just how easy this is by commissioning its first 5G cell tower.

“5G for People” benefits business and private customers, especially those outside of high-population areas, since these locations usually have no fiber optic connections and there is greater potential to expand existing mobile network systems with 5G (NIS reserve). More than 90% of the antennas in urban areas cannot be expanded because of excessively strict Swiss radiation protection regulations (NISV limits).

Private customers could use 5G to replace ADSL/VDSL and benefit from UHD TV, surfing with up to 1 Gbps, online gaming, and augmented and virtual reality. For business customers, 5G-based mobile broadband solutions will be the most important, as they can be obtained as “managed services” using wireless networks instead of a fixed-line connection.