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In-building 5G highlighted during VZTUF

Verizon vendors focus on in-building connectivity during Austin event

The annual Verizon Technology Users Forum event, formerly called the In-Building Technology Users Forum, is taking place this week in Austin, Texas, and, as with everything telecoms, 5G is a major part of the conversation.

Right now 5G deployments are largely focused on creating outdoor hot spots in dense, urban areas. And, just like with previous generations of cellular, the in-building space is at risk of continuing to be an underserved market. Keenly aware of this, vendors are tailoring their indoors solution to provide an option that’s 5G-ready.

Just like with the macro network, delivering 5G depends on fiber and software. Case in point, SOLiD Technologies announced an upgrade to its GENESIS distributed antenna system platform designed to provide an evolutionary path from LTE to 5G.

President of SOLiD Americas Ken Sandfeld noted its platform is compatible with the 5G New Radio specification and will be further adapted to support the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band as well as millimeter wave frequencies, which are central to operator 5G strategies.

The goal, Sandfeld said, is deliver the adaptability needed to “avoid the rip-and-replace strategy…While others talk about deploying 5G solutions, SOLiD is already deploying 5G solutions in South Korea,” with SK Telecom. “Here at Verizon’s VZTUF XIII, we are very pleased to showcase SOLiD GENESIS DAS to address the needs of customers who want a software based, fiber-to-the- edge solution, designed to meet the requirements of the middleprise market.”

Elsewhere in the in-building market, JMA Wireless, which recently acquired 5G specialist PHAZR, announced this week deployed  its virtualized XRAN solution in Dacia Arena in Udine, Italy. XRAN connects to JMA’s TEKO DAS to support a neutral host deployment model.

“Cost, simplicity, footprint, power, and cooling changes dramatically with XRAN,” Remo Ricci, president of TEKO Systems at JMA Wireless, said in a statement. “XRAN was designed from its inception to close the gap between rapidly growing in-building mobile connectivity demands and today’s complex, proprietary hardware solutions that were unable to evolve and adapt for multi-operator services.”

ABOUT AUTHOR

Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean focuses on multiple subject areas including 5G, Open RAN, hybrid cloud, edge computing, and Industry 4.0. He also hosts Arden Media's podcast Will 5G Change the World? Prior to his work at RCR, Sean studied journalism and literature at the University of Mississippi then spent six years based in Key West, Florida, working as a reporter for the Miami Herald Media Company. He currently lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.