SINGAPORE—Ericsson is targeting rural regions in Asia with a new cell edge boosting technology that it claims will reduce opex and capex costs for a radio access network by as much as 30%.

Called Expander, the solution is actually a series of technology that boosts signal strength, reduces power consumption and transmission costs, and scales down equipment size to levels that a two-man crew can install by hand. Key to the package is a new RF setup that uses two transponders in parallel thus boosting signal strength and reducing the number of cellsites necessary to cover a rural region by 50%, said Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson vice president of product management for GSM radio access networks.

“Our radio waves reach a little further than anyone else’s,” Ewaldsson said at CommunicAsia.

But the solution goes much further, Ewaldsson said, targeting not just equipment outlays but the costs of installing and running the network. The new Radio Base Station 2116 and RBS 2216 use 20% to 30% less power and has microwave backhaul technology incorporated into the unit, allowing carriers to save on wireline transport costs. The units are also designed in components, none of which of weigh more than 70 kg, meaning they can all be carried by hand and no crane or heavy equipment is necessary to install a cellsite on an existing tower, Ewaldsson said.

It’s no coincidence Ericsson announced the new product at CommunicAsia. As India, China and many countries in Southeast Asia rollout service they are mainly confined to urbanized areas. Many countries in Southeast Asia have penetration below 20% and carriers are looking for a cheaper way to expand their coverage beyond city centers to customers that can afford to pay only a fraction of what urban dwellers pay.