Barcelona, Spain – February 26, 2018 – Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today announced at Mobile World Congress that Sprint has purchased 5G-ready massive MIMO solutions from Samsung, which includes deployment of Samsung’s latest MIMO technology solutions on Sprint’s 2.5GHz TDD-LTE network.

Samsung’s massive MIMO can provide a way for operators to inject new capacity into their network without having to buy more spectrum or add new base stations. It can also be used by operators to significantly increase LTE network speeds, and can improve network efficiencies through the use of advanced beam-forming.

Today, Sprint announced it will begin deploying 5G-ready massive MIMO technology in the coming weeks, an important milestone for the carrier as it prepares to launch their 5G mobile network in the U.S. in the first half of 2019. The massive MIMO implementation will include Samsung’s new, higher capacity digital unit and software – the Samsung CDU 30 – enabling gigabit level speeds while supporting eMTC and NB-IoT. The CDU 30 compact digital unit also halves in-cabinet space requirements by allowing replacement of existing DUs with a single new unit that supports both TDD and FDD spectrum.

Samsung’s massive MIMO solutions help provide Sprint with a clear upgrade path to 5G in 2.5GHz.  In addition, Samsung’s massive MIMO access unit and CDU 30 are upgradeable to 5G NR, a standard that provides the foundation for next-generation mobility.

The company’s massive MIMO solutions can also support split-mode capabilities, which will enable Sprint to offer both 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio.

“We’re excited to work with Samsung to deploy massive MIMO which is a tremendous competitive advantage for Sprint, enabling us to maximize our deep 2.5GHz spectrum holdings,” said Dr. John Saw, Chief Technology Officer at Sprint. “This technology is key to meeting our customers’ growing demand for unlimited data, as well as offering Gigabit LTE and 5G services.”

“After testing massive MIMO solutions with Sprint last year, and seeing impressive capacity gains using the same amount of spectrum, we are excited to reach this new milestone with the deployment of Samsung MIMO solutions on Sprint’s network,” said Mark Louison, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “As this technology advances to even greater levels of speed and capacity, we look forward to enabling Sprint customers to experience the full benefits of network innovation.”

Other key benefits of the Samsung MIMO technology for Sprint are:

  • Samsung’s commercial massive MIMO solution is a 64 transmit and 64 receive (64T/64R) configured radio.
  • Samsung’s massive MIMO access unit is an integrated solution with a radio unit and active antennas in a compact and lightweight form factor.
  • The new CDU 30, along with its new advanced LTE software features, will provide for Gigabit level speeds through features like TDD-FDD carrier aggregation, as well as inter-band FDD carrier aggregation with downlink support for 256QAM.

For further information on Samsung and Sprint’s massive MIMO trial, please visit here.