Ericsson working on technology to beat frequency limits

MUMBAI: Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson is working on a fourth-generation technology that allows communication services to move seamlessly across frequencies and technology standards and may help operators overcome restrictions from frequency shortage. Such a technology offers opportunities for spectrum-starved Indian operators, especially those holding frequencies in multiple bands. One of the major beneficiaries could be Reliance Jio Infocomm, the Reliance Industries’ unit that has airwaves in the 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands and has yet to launch services.

“Operators in India are challenged for spectrum, but as a result of it comes some of the best technology innovations,” Arun Bansal, the company’s radio business unit head, told ETin an interview.

Ericsson’s technology allows a call to be completed in different bands: a caller can uplink his voice onto the network in one frequency and get response in another. It is not possible at the moment – for instance, if the caller’s phone is using 900 MHz band to uplink the voice, it will receive the respondent’s voice in the same frequency band.

Ericsson’s technology – Bansal says it is already out of the lab and the company is working with chipset makers for commercial development – allows phones to work in any frequencies between 700 Mhz and 2600 Mhz.