Verizon recently partnered with Pivotal Commware, a Verizon Ventures portfolio company, to conduct trials in Dearborn, Michigan that improve 5G coverage and performance for residents and visitors by strategically placing intelligent repeaters to enhance and boost Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wide Band signal.
A network repeater takes signals from nearby cell sites, amplifies the signals from those sites and retransmits them to previously underserved areas. Pivotal’s solution is an innovative way to efficiently enhance the design of the network and improve service in hard to reach areas.
The trials in Dearborn focus on providing coverage to larger, multi-unit dwellings such as apartments or dormitories with multiple buildings and floors where repeaters are particularly helpful. By installing repeaters between the cell site and the location, the 5G signal can be cost-effectively retransmitted to cover additional areas. Repeaters are small, consume less power than a small cell or macro site and do not require a fiber connection. This makes them a lower cost, quicker path to supplementing traditional cell sites, said Verizon.
Kevin Smith, VP of Network Planning, Verizon
Compared to lower spectrum bands, 5G over mmWave offers far more speed and throughput, is more energy efficient, experiences less signal interference over the air, and has a much greater capacity for expansive scalability.
