U.S. company Pivotal Commware, which focuses on 5G millimeter wave technologies, systems and applications, has begun commercial shipment of its 28 GHz Pivotal Echo 5G subscriber repeater to a Tier 1 mobile network operator in the United States, the firm said in a statement.
The Echo 5G uses Holographic Beam Forming (HBF) technology to deliver on the promise of 5G mmWave, Pivotal Commware said.
The firm highlighted that the Echo 5G is a self-installable, on-the-window, precision beamforming repeater designed to counteract mmWave penetration, reflection, and structural shadowing losses so it can flood an interior with mmWave signal.
Essentially, the Echo 5G acts as a wireless portal between indoor and outdoor worlds, the company said, going on to say that for fixed wireless access (FWA) providers serving homes and enterprises, the Echo 5G facilitates gigabit speeds.
For 5G connected devices, the Echo 5G enables outdoor-to-indoor signal transitions so users can ubiquitously enjoy the immersive 5G experiences that only mmWave capacity can deliver, the company added.
The Echo 5G accomplishes this using Pivotal’s patented HBF technology whose cost, size, weight and power consumption (C-SWaP) profile is significantly lower than phased array beamformers.
“Pivotal and its customers believe that the immersive 5G experiences people and businesses want in media, health, retail and so much more, are possible only with the massive bandwidth available at mmWave frequencies,” said Brian Deutsch, CEO of Pivotal Commware. “Echo 5G has solved the mmWave indoor penetration challenge. Now, mmWave license holders worldwide can boost their service to its full potential.”
Pivotal’s next product, an outdoor network repeater called Pivot 5G, will be introduced in the first half of 2020. Pivot 5G will address mmWave coverage challenges by capturing and redirecting mmWave signals from the 5G base station around obstacles like buildings.
By extending the range of 5G base stations, Pivot 5G will reduce base station CAPEX, ongoing OPEX, siting costs and deployment time, while growing network coverage organically along with revenue, Pivotal said.
Pivotal Commware develops communications platforms, systems and applications based on HBF.
The company is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.