Mobile Operators Adopt Freshwave’s New Indoor UK 5G Mobile Solution
Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has today announced that they’ve worked with UK mobile operators EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) to start rolling out the next “evolution” of their indoor focused small cell Omni Network, which could initially only harness 4G but has now been upgraded to handle 5G (mobile broadband).
Small Cells are typically mini shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which are designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 100 metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy urban areas and specific sites – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or even inside buildings to boost mobile coverage.
The new 5G on Omni service is said to be built on the Ericsson Radio Dot System and extends 5G carrier-grade mobile coverage to more spaces. As building materials can block mobile signal from reaching indoors, a dedicated multi-operator in-building mobile system can ensure everyone inside has the mobile connectivity they need, no matter which network they’re on.
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In addition, 5G on Omni supports all of the UK’s mobile operators from day one as part of a fully managed service and is said to use up to 50% less energy than a Distributed Antenna System (DAS), while also being “faster and more cost effective to deploy with less cabling, and needs less space in the comms room“.
Simon Frumkin, Freshwave’s CEO, said:
“After a world-first with Omni Network, I’m delighted we’re now able to offer our customers another first with 5G on Omni. It’s the next stage of assured indoor mobile connectivity, bringing all the operators indoors on 5G via small cells. Indoor connectivity is an essential productivity driver, as evidenced by our Mobile Connectivity ROI Index which found that the UK could gain £70 billion of added value by eliminating mobile signal not-spots indoors.
5G on Omni represents an important step forward for indoor connectivity in the UK. We’re grateful to all the UK mobile operators and to our technology partner Ericsson for their collaboration in making this possible.”
The announcement includes comments from all of the major UK mobile operators, which welcomed the development. One of the first locations to get the new solution is the flexible office provider Workspace’s Record Hall site in central London, which now supports both 4G and 5G mobile signals from all the MNOs to the offices and workshops there.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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It’s not as elegant as just a bunch of Shoebox sized AP’s
there’s 15-20u of kit required (backhaul circuits to each of the mobile operators), routers and core router and then distribution switches.
but that said, having had quotes from them recently (based on the 4g offering), does look a good proposition