Hocell 5G Pico Repeater Helped AIS to Overcome Weak 5G Signals

About Customer

Founded in April 1985, Advanced Info Service (AIS) Public Company Limited is Thailand's largest mobile phone operator. AIS is the pioneer on 5G market in Thailand. 

Project Background

Complaints were received from many people about the poor 5G signals or even no signals in their homes, offices and shops. To improve user satisfaction and ensure brand reputation as the leader of 5G network service provider in Thailand, AIS decided to overcome the weak signal issues or dead zones by introducing a low-cost, plug & play 5G Pico repeater, to improve signal strength and provide reliable connectivity for the users.

Pico Repeater Solution

As NSA network is the major 5G network mode of AIS’s current 5G service, the Pico repeater needs to support both 4G and 5G frequency bands, and should be able to support future evolution to 5G SA network. The major 4G an 5G frequency bands for AIS are FDD Band 3 (1800+MHz) and TDD N41 (2600MHz) respectively. Therefore, the two bands are required for the Pico repeater.

The target coverage area is typically 100 square meters, and could be up to 300 square meters, so the RF power of the two bands should be at least 17dBm and the gain should be at least 65dBm. The HWSR-Pico series 5G cellular signal booster was finally chosen by AIS.

To simplify the installation, the donor antenna was required to support windows installation by vacuum suction cup.

Project Result

After deploying the 5G&4G dual-band Pico repeater in the homes, offices or shops, the indoor 5G and 4G signal was improved significantly. For example, before Pico repeater was used, the tested indoor 5G signal was -107dBm; After the Pico repeater was installed in the room, the signal was -51dBm near the repeater, and was -79dBm a few meters away. The result of the Pico repeater met the original expectation. Therefore, the Pico repeater has been widely adopted across many cities to resolve the 5G signal coverage issue.