Ericsson is launching a cellular radio that is small enough to fit a person’s hand, but provides enough indoor network coverage for a crowd. The disk-shaped device goes by the name Ericsson Radio Dot System. This is to address a broad range of scenarios for providing high-quality access to mobile broadband and voice services indoors.

An in-building environment presents a special set of challenges for mobile operators, concerning complexity, scalability and service continuity. Current indoor solutions are built mainly for voice coverage and do not meet the growing capacity demands of apps. Covering major parts of buildings has been challenging, for reasons such as high costs and limited scalability.

Ericsson Radio Dot System is compact and offers flexible mounting. The device weighs 300g, which is the result of two years of research and development, and incorporates 14 patents. It introduces an antenna element, or “dot” that delivers mobile broadband access to users. Because of its convenient size, scalability, and compelling evolution path, this product caters to different kinds of users in medium to large indoor locations, and aims to address operators’ needs of offering a complete indoor solution.

Dots are connected and powered via standard internet LAN cables (Category 5/6/7) to indoor radio units that link to a base station. Radio Dot System leverages the same industry features found in Ericsson’s macro base station. Deployments and upgrades are simple, addressing growing capacity and coverage requirements. Thus, the users’ experience is consistent wherever they go and the indoor network evolves in lockstep with the outdoor network. Ericsson Radio Dot System supports integration with Ericsson’s carrier WiFi portfolio enabling features such as real-time traffic steering to ensure great user experience across both WiFi and 3GPP networks.

Johan Wibergh, head of Ericsson Business Unit Networks, says: “With the Radio Dot System we lower the threshold to building indoor coverage. The dot is the most cost-effective, no-compromise solution to the indoor coverage challenges expressed by our customers. It is ultra-small but can scale to virtually unlimited capacity; it is easy to install, future proof and it is 100 percent integrated with existing mobile networks.”

The product is expected to be commercially available in late 2014.