Verizon and Ericsson partner to deploy Massive MIMO

Verizon and Ericsson have announced the completion of their first deployment of FDD Massive MIMO on the US cellco’s network in Irvine, California. The deployment involves 16 transceiver radio units driving an array of 96 antenna elements supplied by Ericsson, and utilises a 20MHz block of AWS spectrum. For customers, Verizon says the result will be higher and more consistent speeds for using apps and uploading and downloading files. ‘Massive MIMO is a key technology enabler for 5G, but already today, 4G LTE service providers and end users can benefit from the superior capacity and network performance this technology enables,’ commented Niklas Heuveldop, Head of Market Area North America at Ericsson, adding: ’The current trial is an important step in the collaboration we have with Verizon to prepare their network for 5G.’