Singtel, Ericsson to pilot Massive MIMO and Cloud RAN technology

Both are key components in the evolution to 5G.

Telco giant Singtel and communication technology service provider Ericsson are joining hands to pilot Massive MIMO and Cloud RAN on Singtel’s 4G LTE network.

According to a joint press release, both technologies are key components in the evolution to 5G that will enable Singtel to expand its mobile network capacity to offer faster speeds by the end of the year.

Massive MIMO, a key to achieving Gigabit LTE speeds, expands the network capacity as it improves spectral efficiency to triple or quadruple the number of data paths of cellular base stations. Ericsson AIR 6468 radio, providing 64T64R Massive MIMO capabilities, will be tested and progressively deployed on Singtel’s 4G LTE network.

Both companies will also embark on a pilot of Cloud RAN which will provide Singtel with the flexibility to centralise, distribute, scale and virtualise radio access network functions to efficiently meet performance requirements today and on the road to 5G.

“Data traffic is on the rise and will increase exponentially with 4K video, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality services on the horizon. We are investing ahead to ensure that our networks have the capacity and speeds that will offer our customers the best mobile data experience in Singapore,” Singtel Consumer Singapore CEO
Yuen Kuan Moon said.

To recall, Singtel and Ericsson first signed a 5G MOU in January 2015 and were the first to showcase a 5G system in Southeast Asia in August 2016, achieving a downlink speed of 27.5 Gbps.