Ericsson join hands with MTS to provide mobile broadband experience to football fans in Russia

Ericsson has joined hands with Russian service provider MTS to provide mobile broadband experience to football fans attending the upcoming global soccer tournament in Russia, through one of Europe's largest deployments of Massive MIMO.

In Moscow alone, the deployment covers two stadiums and fan zones, Sheremetyevo airport, Red Square, Tverskaya Street and Gorky Central Park.

Saint Petersburg coverage includes stadium and fan zones, Dvortsovaya Square, and Moskovsky railway station. The other covered cities are Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Niznny Novgorod, Samara, and Rostov-on-Don.

"Data-demanding mobile connectivity is going to play a huge part in their tournament experiences, so we are delighted to team up with MTS to ensure they enjoy a mobile experience like never before, whether they are at the game, in a fan zone, or at other selected areas," Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Area Europe and Latin America, Ericsson said.

According to the Ericsson New Radio (NR)-capable radio designed for compatibility with the 5G New, Radio standard features 64 transmit and 64 receive antennas enabling it to support 5G plug-ins for both Massive MIMO and Multi-User MIMO.

"Through the intelligent reuse of system resources, Massive MIMO improves capacity by transmitting data to multiple user devices using the same time and frequency resources with coordinated beam forming and beam steering," said Ericsson in a statement.

Massive MIMO is making it easier for operators to evolve their networks for a 5G future. This includes Ericsson's 5G Plug-ins, which are based on many of the same breakthrough capabilities in our award-winning 5G Radio Test Bed and 5G Radio Prototypes, currently deployed in operator field trials.

Andrei Ushatsky, Vice President, Technology and IT, MTS, says: "This launch is one of Europe's largest Massive MIMO deployments, covering seven Russian cities, and is a major contribution by MTS in the preparation of the country's infrastructure for the global sporting event of the year."

He said: "Our Massive MIMO technology, using Ericsson equipment, significantly increases network capacity, allowing tens of thousands of fans together in one place to enjoy the high-speed mobile internet without any loss in speed or quality."