Discrete 5G from Nokia

Nokia Networks unveils smaller and more aesthetically pleasing antenna panels and base stations that might satisfy picky suburbanites.

16:21 28 February 2019

Every town that wishes to offer 5G service to its residents is required to install 5G base stations. Called millimetre wave, this technology requires low-power antenna every 1,500 feet. These base stations are much less powerful than larger cell sites but their high frequencies drop off so quickly with distance that many of them are needed to provide better coverage.

 

The problem with the base stations, which are a size of a big bag pack, is that many feel that they are an eye sore. To address this issue, Nokia has launched a significantly smaller version of the technology that is roughly a size of a coffee table book.

 

Nokia Networks' Phil Twist said: "These are significantly smaller than the first millimeter-wave products we had even just a few months ago,"

 

"The products are getting much more discreet,"

 

Twist also followed up on how 5G NR base stations aren't quite ready yet.

 

"The 3GPP standard we should all be using for 5G was supposed to have been set in September of last year. There have been some changes from September to December which weren't forward compatible…and versions based on December are now in the labs for interoperability testing and going through the fine-tuning process. There's some fine-tuning needed to make it a stable production system. We'll have launches in a few weeks' time,"