Swisscom Plans to Deploy 5G Standalone (SA) in 2020

We wrote about Swisscom's 5G Fast and 5G Wide when they launched their 5G network earlier this year. In a recent presentation at Total Telecom Congress, Christoph Aeschlimann, CTO & CIO of Swisscom AG provided a bit more detail of what it is. This can be seen from the picture below

While 5G Fast aggregates the C-band spectrum Swisscom owns, 5G Wide relies on Dynamic spectrum sharing using 4G spectrum only.

In addition, he presented Swisscom's the next phase of 5G deployment, Standalone 5G with 5G Core. This can be seen below:

As can be seen the 5G SA trial is planned for H1-2020 and first deployments are expected in H2-2020. If you are unsure of what the difference between SA and NSA 5G is, please refer to our 3G4G tutorial here. While it does not say what 5G Network Architecture Option Swisscom will be deploying, it is assumed to be Option 2. Nearly all operators are thinking of that option when moving to 5G core, except a few like NTT Docomo that believe that Option 7 will be needed in the interim, followed by Option 4 and then Option 2.

Finally, a slide that lists Swisscom's latest facts and figures. Just in case you were wondering, Mio, is an abbreviation for "millions" as a unit indicator in some financial markets, such as the German, Swiss and Dutch markets.

Christoph Aeschlimann, CTO & CIO of Swisscom wrote a LinkedIn post titled "90% 5G coverage in 2019. How to turn the impossible into reality" back in August. It's worth a read.

Related Posts:

• Updated 5G Terminology Presentation (Feb 2019)
• The Politics of Standalone vs Non-Standalone 5G & 4G Speeds
• Fastweb and the Shared 5G Network in Italy
• Swisscom brings Industry 4.0 to Ypsomed
• Swisscom launched 5G Fast and 5G Wide
• Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results

20 Years of Salt Mobile

Switzerland has approximately 11.2 million connections for a total population of 8.53 million, mobile penetration in Switzerland at the end of 2018 was nearly 132%.


Swisscom is the largest mobile phone operator in Switzerland, holding down 58.3 percent of the Swiss mobile network market. This translates to a customer base of 6.55 million customers for Swisscom, 2.78 million for Sunrise, and 1.88 million customers for Salt.

Source 

Now Europe clearly have most of the global 5G deployments as of yet but according to one vendor executive, Switzerland is “massively in the lead.” Currently Swisscom and Sunrise are both offering commercial 5G services, with the third national operator Salt working to launch sometime later this year. 

The diagrams above and below are from a report about Sunrise, but they are useful for showing the market/spectrum position of Salt. 

Salt is the smallest of the three operators has recently secured 20 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, 80 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band and 10 megahertz in the 1.4 GHz band and are working with Nokia to begin rolling out 5G this quarter. Previously it teamed up with Nokia to showcase potential applications for 5G, achieving download speeds of 4.5 Gb/s using spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band. It also tested virtual reality applications and transmitted live video to demonstrate network characteristics such as latency of around 1 millisecond.

Nokia is supplying core and radio access network equipment based off of a deal signed in January. In terms of use cases and applications, the carrier called out video streaming and augmented and virtual reality for the consumer media market, and the internet of things for verticals including, smart cities, banking, manufacturing and tourism

Accordng to Salt CEO Pascal Grieder:

“We are committed to providing our customers with an outstanding customer experience and have identified Nokia as the right partner to deliver exceptional mobile experience. They convinced us not only through their advanced technological capabilities but also their reliability and security, which are paramount to Swiss private users as well as our country’s corporations."

Salt have also just reached their 20th anniversary:

Et parce que chez Salt c’est nous qui faisons les cadeaux même si c’est notre anniversaire, tu peux maintenant bénéficier d’un rabais de 50% sur tous nos abonnements. #LetsPartyNow

— Salt Mobile SA (@SaltMobile_FR) July 5, 2019

Salt’ mobile network now covers 99% of the population with 4G services. The operator today serves 1,228,000 postpaid as well as 596,000 prepaid customers. 

In June 2019, Salt's mobile network was ranked number one among its two national competitors for the first time and ranked sixth among 318 operators tested worldwide with a total of 29,218 points by 4GMark, a platform mobile performance test.The measured average download speed was 44.2 MB / s and the average upload speed was 16.9 MB / s. These levels provide consumers with a great download experience and watch TV in high definition anywhere and anytime on their mobile device.

This achievement is the result of a great deal of investment in their network which will only further improve with the development of 5G. 


Related Post:

• Operator Watch Blog: Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results

Sunrise: 5G for the People

Sunrise is the challenger in Swiss market, dominated by Swisscom. The following video was recorded at 5G World and was part of the session, '“First on 5G” Launch (April 2019)', presented by Bruno Duarte, CCO, Sunrise Communications. It gives an overview of their 5G network.



Here is a twitter moment of a technical discussion comparing Sunrise with Swisscom

Sunrise vs Swisscom

Related Posts:

• Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results
• Sunrise Communications Overview
• Swisscom launched 5G Fast and 5G Wide

Swisscom brings Industry 4.0 to Ypsomed

Swisscom, Ericsson and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) initiated the “5G for Switzerland” programme in the summer of 2016 in order to carry out joint research in this new mobile telephony standard. Swisscom seeks to offer its customers the best infrastructure. Swisscom is working intensively on the development of 5G in order to make this latest technology available to its customers as early as possible. 5G will enable greater speed, greater capacities and shorter reaction times. The economy, science, industry as well as residential customers will benefit from it in equal measure.  Digitisation is also being worked on in the direction of Industry 4.0. In addition, Swisscom is promoting the further development of 4G and now provides 4G+ with speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s to 40% of the population; at the end of the year, it will be 67%. Swisscom already covers 15% of the population with speeds of up to 450 Mbit/s.

Ypsomed is the leading developer and manufacturer of injection and infusion systems for selfmedication and a renowned diabetes specialist with 30 years experience. As an innovation and technology leader, the company is the preferred partner of pharmaceutical and biotech companies for pens, auto-injectors and pump systems for administrating liquid medication. Ypsomed presents and distributes its product portfolios under the umbrella brand mylife Diabetescare directly to patients or via pharmacies and clinics, as well as under YDS Ypsomed Delivery Systems in business-to-business operations to pharmaceutical companies. The company is based in Burgdorf, Switzerland, and has a global network of production sites, subsidiaries and sales partners employing around 1300 staff worldwide

“It is of great value to us that we can attract Ypsomed as our first industrial partner for our "5G for Switzerland" programme. This will enable us to gain key insights into the digitisation of industry processes.” says Heinz Herren, CTO and CIO of Swisscom. 5G-specific features, such as extremely high bandwidths and long latency periods, are being tested. But they are also investigating aspects of wirelessly-networked production and its integrated data processing. Here, technology such as edge computing is being used for the first time. The cloud will become an integral component of a base station and control IT production processes both locally and directly. Ypsomed aims to gain experience of 5G technology early on in order to prepare for the new age of mobile-networked production. Ypsomed also aims to be able to benefit quickly from the economies of scale in production IT. “At Ypsomed, we are investing a lot in the digitisation of the injection systems and we see some great opportunities for growth. We want to fully exploit the potential for digitisation and apply it to all processes,” explains Ypsomed CEO Simon Michel about their collaboration with Swisscom.

Press Release
Swisscom 5G


Related Posts:

• Swisscom launched 5G Fast and 5G Wide
• Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results

Swisscom launched 5G Fast and 5G Wide

We wrote a detailed post about 5G Spectrum auctions in Switzerland earlier this year. Now Swisscom has recently announced the launch of its 5G network this month (May 2019):

Long-awaited and available from May: Swisscom presents the first commercially available 5G smartphone in Switzerland. The Oppo Reno 5G is set to make the 5G mobile telephony standard a reality for residential customers. The range of 5G-capable devices will continue to be expanded.

Following the first prototypes at the end of 2018, Swisscom can now announce four end devices for sale. The very first 5G device in the Swisscom shop comes from the manufacturer Oppo, followed by other brands such as LG (from May), Samsung (from July) and Huawei (third quarter).

As can be seen in the picture on the top and the one above, Swisscom has a variety of spectrum available but is also refarming 2G & 3G to use 4G. This way Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G could be used with 4G. So what is happening with Swisscom 2G & 3G:

• 2G will be switched off at the end of 2020 and the 2G frequencies will be used for 5G. 
• As of October 2019, the 2100 MHZ frequency will be used for 5G instead of 3G. 3G technology itself, however, will continue to be available on the Swisscom network for some time to come: Standard 3G coverage will be offered at least until the end of 2024.
• Swisscom has 2x15 MHz of 900 MHz spectrum available. Right now it uses the frequency for 2G & 3G. 3G will continue to run in 900 MHz but 2G will be switched off. Not sure if this means that the 900 MHz 2G will be refarmed for 3G or 5G mMTC kind of usage.

Swisscom PR defined 5G-Fast and 5G-Wide as follows:

As soon as the Federal Office of Communications grants the licence, Swisscom will activate the 5G network which it has established with technology partner Ericsson. The first 5G devices run on a proven frequency in the 3.5 gigahertz band, which was previously used for outdoor TV reports and has now been approved by the federal government for mobile communications. This frequency is designed to achieve speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s (5G-fast). During the media event, Swisscom demonstrated a peak speed of 1.86 Gbit/s. "As number one, we are responsible for our country and must think ahead," says Urs Schaeppi. "We invented prepaid in 1996, introduced Mobile Unlimited as a world first in 2004 and were the first to build a 4G network in 2012. We intend to ensure Switzerland remains an innovation location. We have therefore been shaping the development of 5G in international committees since 2016 and are working on a modernisation of NIRO." By the end of the year, Switzerland will be supplied with 5G; this includes cities, the countryside and the mountain regions. Known as 5G-wide, this stage of the expansion uses frequencies that permit extensive coverage. Customers everywhere will benefit from faster response times, greater bandwidths and, thanks to technology sharing with 4G, higher speeds.

It should be noted that Swisscom also won 700 MHz spectrum in the auctions earlier, so it's a matter of time before we see 5G Ultra-wide or something similar later on.

Further Reading:

• Operator Watch Blog: Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results
• The Mobile Network: Swisscom promises 90% 5G population coverage before end of 2019
• 5G for Switzerland: Swisscom set to finish expansion by end of the year and launch the first 5G smartphones
• Swisscom: 5G for Switzerland

Switzerland 5G Spectrum Auctions Results

According to Mobile World Live:

Switzerland’s Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) awarded 5G radio frequencies to all three mobile operators – Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt – raising CHF380 million ($379 million).

The frequencies will be assigned for 15 years, which the regulator said provides the “operators long-term planning security to develop their networks.”

...

Dense Air, a small cell player which launched in 2018, pulled out of the Swiss auction. Reuters noted this “removes a potential rival for the three companies in the already crowded Swiss mobile market”.

Swisscom, which paid CHF196 million, said by the end of 2019 it expects to roll-out 5G to 60 towns and communities.

Sunrise and Salt did not have such concrete plans. The former said the frequencies gained will help it to “deliver a world-class 5G network in the future” and the latter that it will “improve its high-quality mobile network” with “next-generation speed, latency and capacity”.

According to a media release by Sunrise:

At the 5G frequency auction, Sunrise has acquired the strategically most important frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, which perfectly fit its "5G for People" strategy.

With its existing and new frequencies, Sunrise will be able to secure its existing 96% 4G area coverage and deliver a world-class 5G network in the future. This will provide outstanding area coverage and, notably, give suburban and rural areas "optical fiber speed over the air".

Thanks to a clever bidding strategy, Sunrise was able to acquire the most important bands at a favorable price of 0.077 CHF per MHz/Pop. With the frequencies acquired in the middle frequency range and combined with the existing frequencies, Sunrise will be able to provide the area coverage and capacities needed in the long term. 

This is what we estimate the real world 5G NR speeds will look like:
Coverage Layer: 10 – 50 Mbps (10 MHz bandwidth)
Capacity Layer: 100 – 300 Mbps (40 MHz bandwidth)
High Throughput Layer: 400 – 1500 Mbps (100 MHz bandwidth)
Any thoughts? pic.twitter.com/DKOLOvP10g

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) November 7, 2018

According to the chart on top (from Sunrise media release), you can see that all the three operators are well placed with a reasonable amount of coverage and capacity layer 5G spectrum. The 5G future looks good for Swiss.

Sunrise Communications Overview

A short summary of Sunrise Communications from a presentation by Aaron Pearce

As can be seen seen in the picture above, SBB, UBS and Migros started NewtelcoAG. Then in 1997 British Telecom and Tele Danmark joined Newtelco as partners and investors and launched the Sunrise brand. Since then Sunrise has just been going from strength to strength. In 2016, Sunrise celebrated 20 years of success and was also the winner of the “connect” network test with a record score and the only provider to be awarded a rating of “OUTSTANDING.”

In fact in an Opensignal report on Switzerland last year, Sunrise won the crown for fastest download speeds while Swisscom had the best coverage.

.@Sunrise_de fastest, @Swisscom_de with best coverage in @opensignal's first report on Switzerland. https://t.co/HjR5jOPz2B pic.twitter.com/LLCXILcNDx

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) May 24, 2017

In a nutshell, Sunrise is the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland with convergent solutions from one source as can be seen in the picture above.