US Cellular expects to activate its mid-band spectrum for customer use by the end of 2023
US Cellular announced new agreements with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia to boost the carrier’s 5G network infrastructure.
US Cellular and Ericsson inked a deal which includes the deployment of the telco’s recently acquired C-band and 3.45 GHz spectrum, which paves the way for the provision of enhanced Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).
Fixed Wireless Access, or FWA, is a method of providing wireless connectivity to homes and businesses through radio links between two fixed points without the need for fiber and cables for last mile connectivity.
“Ericsson’s technology expertise has helped us keep our customers connected for many years, and we look forward to working with them on this next evolution of our 5G network,” said Mike Irizarry, EVP and CTO at US Cellular. “These deployments are an important step in our multi-year 5G plan to provide our customers an unmatched network experience.”
Ericsson noted that US Cellular chose it to deliver C-Band and 3.45 GHz radio equipment, and its RAN compute platform. The Swedish company will also provide network expertize covering mid-band spectrum for mobile and fixed wireless access services.
US Cellular previously installed Ericsson’s RAN equipment for low-band and mmWave 5G services.
Meanwhile, Nokia also announced a new agreement with US Cellular, to deploy its Nokia AirScale portfolio in C-Band and 3.45 GHz spectrum.
Under the terms of the deal, US Cellular will deploy Nokia’s massive MIMO radios, macro remote radio heads, and next-generation AirScale baseband equipment in the C-Band and 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum. Nokia’s AirScale radios provide dual support for both C-Band and 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum.
Nokia also highlighted that this new deployment builds on Nokia’s existing support for US Cellular’s 5G standalone core network and RAN for both low-band and mmWave 5G.
US Cellular expects to activate this mid-band spectrum for customer use by the end of 2023.
Last month, US Cellular, in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and Inseego, has launched its 5G mmWave high-speed internet service in parts of 10 U.S. cities.
US Cellular’s new internet offering is delivered by the Inseego Wavemaker FW2010 outdoor 5G CPE, powered by the Qualcomm 5G Fixed Wireless Access Platform Gen 1 featuring the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF system.
The carrier said that the new Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service is already available in parts of East Moline and Rock Island, Illinois; Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Davenport, Dubuque and Waterloo, Iowa; Yakima, Washington; and Beloit and Janesville, Wisconsin.
The telco also said that it expects to increase the new offering within those cities and expand to new cities in urban and rural areas.
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