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EE Boost UK 5G Rollout with New Ericsson AIR 3268 Radio Antennas

Thursday, Oct 27th, 2022 (10:07 am) - Score 7,336
EE-UK-Ericsson-5G-Antennas-on-Building

Mobile operator EE (BT) has announced that they’ve begun to rollout Ericsson’s new ultra-lightweight Antenna-Integrated Radio (AIR 3268) hardware to more than 1,000 UK sites, which is smaller and lighter than existing antennas, uses up to 40% less energy and should deliver better 5G (mobile broadband) speeds and coverage.

At just 12kg and with 200W of output power, the AIR 3268, which also features 32 transceivers and passive cooling, is both one of the lightest and smallest (volume of 25 litres) Massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) radios in the industry. One of the advantages of this is that it makes the kit easier to install, not only on towers and rooftops, but also on poles and walls.

NOTE: EE’s 5G network currently covers just over half of the UK’s population and rising.

EE’s 5G network is said to be the “first in Europe to benefit” from Ericsson’s new slimmed down Massive MIMO radio technology, which in the UK will make use of the operator’s existing 3.4GHz and 3.6GHz spectrum bands. The new kit is “initially” being deployed on more than 1,000 sites (this rollout is only just beginning), but that may well be extended.

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The operator added that the antenna’s size means that “accelerated 5G upgrades” will now be possible in some areas previously “constrained by building regulations or planning law“, because older technology would have required an increase in mast height or load bearing etc.

Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer at BT Group, said:

“We’ve already made significant progress in making EE a more efficient network, delivering vast quantities of additional data without equivalent energy increases. Our partnership with Ericsson is a further milestone in this journey, enabling us not only to accelerate our 5G rollout in city centres, but to do so in a more sustainable way. That’s good for us, but also incredibly important to our customers and the planet.”

As you can probably tell from the picture on this article, some of the first deployments of this kit are taking place in central London, with sites in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Belfast to follow before the end of this year. The improved technology will be expanded to more urban and suburban areas in the future, at least those where Ericsson is a key partner for EE (Nokia is their other strategic partner, often in different areas).

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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13 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Carl O says:

    “1,000 UK sites”

    If Hartlepool could be added here

    Fyi EE don’t offer 5G here. Only Three and O2 (just about 700mhz, slower than 4G).

  2. Avatar photo JP says:

    I feel like I’ve seen these already in use on EE’s network in some places, however theyold be a newer revision…. ie. Lighter and slimmer…

    To be honest they could mount them everywhere really dependant on the equipment on the other end required.

    If they used them to go Standalone 5G then we could see an interesting development really.

    1. Avatar photo Serbian Warrior says:

      Standalone 5g at this moment makes only sense in highly crowded areas.

      But I do get what you are saying ️

    2. Avatar photo JP says:

      What I’m saying is, standalone 5G wouldn’t need all the cabinets and additional antennas that go along with putting up 4G/5G masts.

      Ideally these active radios could be mounted on lamp posts or other locations without the need to do major works installings masses of cabinets, though Im sure they would need a small cabinet to house power and data.

      The point is, a lot of service could be supplied from a little kit.

  3. Avatar photo Matthew says:

    Really is shocking in a way how much miniaturisation occurs

  4. Avatar photo Billy says:

    EE 5G is exclusively for city slickers in big cities. Given up on them ever getting around to putting one up for me. Same for Vodafone. Only O2 and Three are actually bothered to try to bring it to the masses instead of the rich londoners.

    1. Avatar photo Truth says:

      Oh please, enough of the sob story with that massive chip on your shoulder….

      Blackpool, Luton, Great Yarmouth, Scarborough, Fort William all poverty deprived towns all able to get EE 5G which just shows you’re just talking absolute crap.

      This basically is good news as it means they can push to deliver even more 5G where prior planning permission would have been rejected.

    2. Avatar photo Hacked Off With UK Negativity says:

      You’d complain about litrally anything, you are always in the comments about this.

      I live in a semi rural area in Ayrshire, and we’re starting to see traces of 5G, so with all due respect, go grow up.

      These things take time, and it will come. If you don’t like it – move (preferably to somewhere other than the UK)

    3. Avatar photo JP says:

      Agreed, not just is the OP wrong and as someone living in Birmingham and having not even 3G coverage at home nevermind 4/5G coverage I can tell them… THEY WRONG… But saying O2 has more 5G coverage than other operators is also mistaken.

      If they genuinely think this then they need to speed a few minutes having a scoot around the coverage checkers for operators and they’d be surprised at some of the locations they have 5G right now.

  5. Avatar photo Jacobyte says:

    Preston, please, pretty please.

  6. Avatar photo Mark says:

    Coverage checkers are hit and miss. My area claims to have indoors and outdoors 3/4G but not the case, how do operators expect to cover the area with a mast three miles away which is only 2G anyway. To be fair the networks have tried for nearly twenty years to improve coverage but Council and local opposition stops all mast applications, the Nimbys don’t want them !

  7. Avatar photo Faisal Farooqui says:

    If this deployment do contain stand alone solution with proper 5G core availability then it will give better results otherwise it will be sane just like another 32X32 MIMO of 4G on the back end!

  8. Avatar photo RadioGaga says:

    I wonder what NOKIA has in store to compete with ERICSSON.

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