British telecommunications company, EE, has deployed London’s first 5G small cells in the borough of Croydon.
Small cells are miniature mobile masts which offer performance boosts in high-demand areas thanks to their size, which makes them easy to install on everyday street infrastructure including London’s iconic red phone kiosks and digital street hubs, as well as lampposts and other furniture.
Seven sites, including four along Croydon’s London Road – a busy thoroughfare lined with businesses, shops and homes – are already seeing over three terabytes (TB) of traffic each day.
“This is great news for Croydon – we’re delighted to be the first town in the UK to be trialling 5G small cells with EE, bringing the latest mobile connectivity to our borough,” said Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon. “These 5G small cells will improve the network capacity in high-usage areas, giving faster download speeds for our residents, businesses and visitors.”
The telecommunications company has now deployed over 1,000 small cells across the UK, marking 400 new deployments over the last 12 months including the first 5G sites in Croydon. The operator uses advanced network analytics to identify specific locations which would benefit from the performance boost enabled by a small cell.
It then works with partners Nokia and Ericsson to deploy the solution itself, to reduce congestion and enable customers to benefit from speeds of up to 300Mbps for 4G cells, and 600Mbps for 5G.
“Small cells are an integral component within our mobile network, ensuring that even in the busiest places our customers have access to the full performance of the UK’s best network,” said Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer, BT Group. “To reach 1,000 deployments, including our first 5G sites, demonstrates our commitment to delivering unrivalled mobile connectivity to all four corners of the UK.”
Source: https://cities-today.com/londons-first-5g-small-cells-trialled/