Ericsson Launches Antenna Integrated Radio Solution at Mobile World Congress 2011

Ericsson, the world's premier provider of technology and services to telecom operators, introduced its ground-breaking Ericsson (News - Alert) AIR solution at the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona. Based on a unique design compactly integrating the antenna into the radio unit, the radio solution, will cut energy consumption and installation time drastically.

The solution, being compact and multi-standard ensures highly efficient and smooth introduction of new technologies, both 3G and 4G. By simply adding AIR and swapping the existing antenna, a new standard or a new frequency band can easily be introduced. Benefit from reduced costs due to shorter installation time, because AIR has fewer units and fewer interconnections compared to traditional site solutions, will also be received by the mobile operators. Field trials in customer networks proved a reduction of integration and installation time of up to 30 percent.

In a press release, Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of product area radio at Ericsson said, "AIR is the fruit of in-depth discussions with customers about their future requirements for highly efficient radio access solutions. AIR will not only cut operational costs substantially, but it will also ensure a smooth introduction of new technologies and frequency bands."

Site design and appearance have become more important, owing to the fact that gaining access to new sites has become increasingly difficult. AIR has been carefully designed to blend into the environment and its sleek appearance is close to that of a traditional antenna. An innovative strategic partnership between Ericsson and the antenna market leader Kathrein has resulted in this completely new design of a radio solution.

In a statement, Ewaldsson says: "We are experiencing a tremendous take off in mobile broadband and the user expectations on speed and coverage are increasing the demands on the networks. In order to cope with the future capacity demands, we have a clearly defined small cell strategy. I am proud to announce that the AIR architecture is the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network."