With at least 75% of households in Africa having access to 2g and 3g radio coverage both in urban and rural areas, Ericsson is set to launch a cellular radio that is small enough to fit a person’s hand, but provides enough indoor network coverage for a crowd.
The disk-shaped, break-through solution, called Ericsson Radio Dot System, addresses a broad range of scenarios for providing high-quality access to mobile broadband and voice services indoors. Johan Wibergh, head of Ericsson Business Unit Networks, says:
With
the Radio Dot System we lower the threshold to building indoor coverage.
The dot is the most cost-effective, no-compromise solution to the
indoor coverage challenges expressed by our customers. It is ultra-small
but can scale to virtually unlimited capacity; it is easy to install,
future proof and it is 100 percent integrated with existing mobile
networks.
An in-building environment presents a special set of challenges for mobile operators, concerning complexity, scalability and service continuity. Current indoor solutions are built mainly for voice coverage and do not meet the growing capacity demands of apps. Covering major parts of buildings has been challenging, for reasons such as high costs and limited scalability.
Ericsson Radio Dot System is compact and offers flexible mounting. The device weighs 300 grams, is the result of two years of research and development, and incorporates 14 patents. It introduces a revolutionary antenna element, or “dot,” which delivers mobile broadband access to users. Because of its convenient size, scalability, and compelling evolution path, this product caters to different kinds of users in medium to large indoor locations, and aims to address operators’ needs
of offering a complete indoor solution.
Due its dot-shaped design, it is unobtrusive in environment but packs a big punch for coverage and capacity and improves indoor user experience
