Ericsson, Swisscom pave way for 5G SA commercialization in Europe

5G carrier aggregation extends the coverage of sub-6 GHz TDD bands, leading to an increased capacity which is vital for carriers to meet the ever-increasing demands of data-hungry wireless services and applications. On the other hand, 5G voice allows carriers to offer substantially higher quality voice and video calling, giving users a significantly improved call experience.

Swisscom and Ericsson along with chipmaker Qualcomm and smartphone maker Oppo have announced a significant 5G carrier aggregation achievement, paving the way for the commercialization of 5G standalone (SA) in Europe.

The partnership demonstrated 5G New Radio Carrier Aggregation across FDD (Frequency-Division Duplex) and TDD (Time-Division Duplex) bands along with the first voice call made over a commercial 5G standalone network at Swisscom's premises in Bern.

5G carrier aggregation extends the coverage of sub-6 GHz TDD bands, leading to an increased capacity which is vital for carriers to meet the ever-increasing demands of data-hungry wireless services and applications. On the other hand, 5G voice allows carriers to offer substantially higher quality voice and video calling, giving users a significantly improved call experience.

"Together with Swisscom, we've launched the first commercial 5G network in Europe. Now it's time to team up for another milestone. This 5G standalone achievement is an important step towards unleashing the full potential of 5G. We are very proud to be Swisscom's mobile network partner, driving 5G evolution in Europe," said Arun Bansal, President of Europe and Latin America, Ericsson.

Swisscom carried out live 5G standalone voice and data calls using Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and carrier aggregation along with Ericsson Spectrum Sharing. The calls were made on Ericsson 5G Radio Dot, 5G Core and IMS deployed on Ericsson NFVI, using the Oppo Find X2 Pro powered by the Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform and Oppo Reno 4Z 5G Snapdragon 888 5G Mobile Platform.

5G SA networks will enhance end-user experience with faster connection times and also enable new opportunities for innovation for use cases such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), smart factories, and connected vehicles, thanks to the lower latency performance characteristics and end-to-end network slicing.