UScellular and Ericsson lead the way
UScellular was the first service provider to offer consumers and enterprise Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services, using 5G extended-range millimeter-wave (mmWave) to target digital divide areas in rural America, reaching coverage of over 5 km.
Highlights
- Working in partnership with Ericsson, UScellular was the first service provider to offer consumers and enterprise Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services using 5G extended-range millimeter-wave (mmWave) which is key to targeting digital divide areas in rural America.
- In the first commercial step, Ericsson's innovative solution enables mmWave coverage to extend from typically 600-900 m, to over 5 km.
- This increased the area in which households may be served by mmWave by 40 times, greatly expanding the number of households able to benefit from these new high-speed, low-latency connections.
The challenge
- Addressing US residents’ right to access high-speed internet: In 2022, it was estimated that between 23-25 million Americans are either unserved or underserved with broadband internet1
- Addressing underserved gap in the market left by the lack of options for consumers living outside the main urban areas.
- The cost, time and complexity of delivering fixed broadband: Previous initiatives have often been unsuccessful, mainly due to the outlay cost involved with new infrastructure and equipment.
1 Source: The New National Broadband Map
The solution
- A world-first commercial offering of 5G mmWave extended-range FWA services.
- Leveraging existing assets such as macro sites and radio towers, using common components to deliver high-speed broadband services to UScellular’s previously underserved consumer and enterprise markets.
- Massive capacity and quick deployment time compared to other wireline options.
The result
- With the innovative mmWave extended range functionality, coverage is significantly extended – pushing the effective range out from typically around 600–900 m to over 5 km.
- This extended range increases the area in which households can benefit from mmWave services by around 40 times.
- UScellular's mmWave Home Internet solution to deliver speeds of +300 Mbps, an increase of 10 –15 times compared to its 4G LTE home internet offering.
- The solution provides the bandwidth required to support high-speed internet access for a wide range of use cases, such high-definition streaming, gaming, and augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR).
"Closing the digital divide in America is a top priority for us. We think it’s the right thing to do to make sure everyone in the country has access to high-speed Internet services. Ericsson played a pivotal role in the innovation for millimeter wave. The thing that really impressed me was they put their best and brightest on the ground with us in those cities where our customers are."
- Mike Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, UScellular
"UScellular was putting their mmWave radios on macro sites, and that’s something that very few service providers were doing. It was worth exploring because it’s a way to bridge that digital divide by connecting the last mile over the airwaves rather than deploying very expensive fiber."
- Jossie Prochilo, Vice President, UScellular and TDS accounts, Ericsson North America
5 km
coverage extended
40 times
increase in the area in which households can benefit from mmWave
10 - 15 times
increase in speed compared to UScellular’s 4G LTE home internet offering
