Swisscom said that 5G FWA technology can also be used as a 5G mobile backup
Swiss operator Swisscom announced the launch of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for business customers, the carrier said in a release.
Swisscom noted that the FWA solution works for remote buildings not covered by its standard network expansion, as well as and temporary business locations without a fixed network connection.
Friederike Hoffmann, head of connected business solutions at Swisscom, said: “5G FWA offers great potential for our business customers. They can use it to benefit from the fastest Internet at their sites and be ready to make full use of all services.”
Swisscom’s “Enterprise Connect” network solution enables customers without a fiber or copper connection to integrate one or more business locations into their office networking via 5G FWA.
The European carrier also highlighted that 5G FWA technology can also be used as a 5G mobile backup.
In order to set up the 5G FWA solution, customers need to install the 5G mobile toolkit from Nokia. The toolkit connects with the mobile communication mast to provide wireless access to the Swisscom network.
Swisscom also currently covers 99% of the country’s population with 5G that uses Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, which borrows capacity from its LTE spectrum.
The telco’s 5G+ service, which uses frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, currently covers over 70% of Switzerland.
In August, Swisscom said it has turned up its midband-spectrum-based “5G+” service on 2,230 antennas in 985 locations.
During the first half of the year, Swisscom added a total of 255 midband-enabled antennas nationwide.
The carrier’s 5G network was commercially launched in April 2019 using equipment from Swedish vendor Ericsson. In an initial phase, the 5G technology was launched 54 cities and communities in Switzerland, including Zürich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne and Lucerne.
Swisscom had recently said that it had connected 4.9 million or some 90% of homes and businesses in Switzerland to its 80 Mbps network by the end of June 2022. Over 4.1 million or 76% of homes and businesses also now have access to 200 Mbps service, the operator reported.
Swisscom previously said it aimed to double FTTH coverage to around 60% in Switzerland by 2025 using P2MP (point-to-multipoint) architecture. However, the company pointed out that Switzerland’s Competition Commission “questioned the network architecture and imposed precautionary measures in December 2020” that were confirmed in 2021. Swisscom said it is “interested in a rapid solution” and “holding in-depth discussions with the Competition Commission.”
