Back on 17 April 2019, Europe's first commercial 5G service was launched in Switzerland, with Swisscom, the country's largest mobile operator, taking this huge step in partnership with Ericsson.
The network is now present in 54 major cities across the country, including Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne and Lucerne. The periphery of the 5G network was already set up this year and after testing, it was a matter of pressing a button to bring it to life.
Xiaomi has already announced in early December last year the first 5G-enabled phone, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G. At the time, a 5G network was still in the pipeline, but there were many concerns about its health effects and low frequency penetration. In China, the big 5G fever only started on 25 April, but several smartphone manufacturers are already gearing up for the new network. In Switzerland, the Oppo Reno was the first such phone, followed by others, like the Xiaomi phone above. Although Xiaomi has already targeted the European market, they have only just hit the shelves on 2 May.
Swisscom is offering existing and new subscribers the new 5G network, if supported by their handset, for a total extra charge of CHF 10 each. That would be CHF 2,835 in our country, but compared to local charges, that's a ridiculous amount. From here, we're rooting for Xiaomi to not only make its most expensive phones 5G capable, but also for Redmi to catch up with its very wallet friendly solutions.
