Photo: 160314-underground-vault-800
Swisscom and Ericsson plant ‘cell towers’ underground
17 March 2016
Swisscom and Ericsson have used an underground vault site in Berne, Switzerland, to house new 4G, or LTE, data terminals that will help the network handle thousands of gigabytes a day.
Dubbed as a ‘world’s first’, the usage of underground manholes and space has been approved by Swiss authorities and will roll out in 250 other locations across the country’s cities.
Both organisations say that using existing underground sites, where optic fibre cables and power already exist, lowers the total cost of ownership by 50 percent.
“Swisscom customers will have the benefit of a good performing network, in terms of capacity and where they need it, and also the benefit is for the cities because the solution can be very well integrated into city centres,” said Hugo Lehmann, Head of Mobile Access and Innovation, Swisscom. “Also for historic city centres it is very important as the visual impact is quite small.”
As mobile data usage increases in cities every year, new and creative ways are being looked at to handle the ever growing data traffic loads. The vault sites use the Ericsson Vault Remote Radio Unit and Kathrein’s Street Connect, an in-ground microcell antenna system.
“By creating the small cells [4G or LTE data terminals] underground we are able to offload data traffic from the macro cell around us and be able to put the data and access for our customers down to where they are at the street level,” said Marcus Bergagård, Small Cell Manhole Project Manager, Swisscom. “It’s a practical solution because it is small and can be quickly implemented into the existing network that we have today.”
