Gigabit Speed in Swisscom's Mobile Network

Swisscom is progressing quickly in expanding the gigabit mobile network with higher speeds and more capacity: gigabit per second speeds are now available in 11 cities and 15 Swisscom shops. This means Swisscom is increasing its pioneering role throughout Switzerland with the expansion of its 4G network. It already provides the best coverage in Switzerland, with 99% 4G cover and 80% 4G+ cover (up to 300 Mbit/s). Swisscom's goal is enable the 30% of the Swiss population to benefit from gigabit speeds by the end of 2018. This speed can already be used with selected smartphones from various manufacturers.

By Armin Schädeli

20 December 2017

"In order to ensure we can continue offering our customers the best possible network experience in future, we are making massive investments in the expansion of our mobile network", said Heinz Herren, CIO & CTO Swisscom. "This expansion represents the right development step towards the 5G expansion of our network." In the summer of 2017, Swisscom was the first provider to activate a gigabit location in Switzerland (Zurich), which clearly underlined its technology leadership. With immediate effect, the following cities have access to gigabit speeds in certain areas: Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne, Lugano, St. Gallen, Lucerne, Sitten, Chur and Fribourg. What's more, customers can try out this enormous speed in 15 selected Swisscom shops with appropriate gigabit smartphones. 12 smartphones from various manufacturers already support this speed.

Swisscom clear leader in gigabit expansion across Switzerland

Swisscom is increasing the performance of its outstanding 4G+ network even further and wants to provide more than 30% of the Swiss population with a speed of 1 Gbit/s by the end of 2018. Together with its partner Ericsson, Swisscom is working intensively on the further development of its 4G mobile network and can already provide 60% of the Swiss population with speeds of up to 450 Mbit/s and 80% with up to 300 Mbit/s. 99% have 4G access. The gigabit expansion is an important step towards 5G, in which Swisscom is investing in a targeted manner. In the summer of 2016 Swisscom had already started work on the development of the latest generation of mobile communication, 5G, within the scope of its "5G for Switzerland" programme. And in June 2017, Swisscom introduced 5G applications such as network slicing, 20 Gbit/s speed and NB IoT to its mobile network, which in turn enabled it to further increase its pioneering role in the introduction of 5G in Switzerland. Swisscom therefore welcomes the decision of the Federal Government to start assigning the frequencies for the 5G bands in 2018 in Switzerland. This is very important in order to ensure the introduction of 5G in Switzerland can take place as quickly as possible.

Gigabit technology

In order to allow you to offer your customers this innovative gigabit speed, Swisscom is combined the four LTE frequencies 800, 1800, 2100 and 2600 using carrier aggregation. Furthermore, these will be supplemented with 4x4 MiMo (Multiple input Multiple output) and 256QAM modulation. As a result of this, all customers will benefit from more capacity in the network. Ultimately, the actual speed will depend on how many customers access the mobile network at a specific point at the same time.

The following smartphones can use the gigabit mobile network:

iPhone x

iPhone 8

iPhone 8 Plus

HTC U11

Huawei Mate 10 pro

Huawei P10 plus

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Samsung Galaxy S8

Samsung Galaxy S8+

Sony Xperia XZ premium

Sony Xperia XZ1

Sony Xperia XZ1 compact

Expansion of the Networks for the Internet of Things

It won't be long before more things than people are connected. Swisscom is already expanding its networks for these things: following the national expansion of the low power network (LoRaWAN), the gradual expansion of the IoT technologies Narrow Band IoT and LTE Cat-M1, which are based mobile communication technologies, will take place throughout Switzerland in 2018. Customers can test these in live networks at two locations in Lausanne and Zurich this Autumn.

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