Corning and Qualcomm joined forces to develop indoor systems for mmWave 5G, in a bid to help enterprises and public venues fill what they argued was a critical gap in next-generation network coverage.

The forthcoming 5G system will combine Corning’s virtualised RAN architecture with Qualcomm’s FSM100xx 5G Small Cell platform. Announcing the move, Corning said the partnership will allow it to include new features such as concurrent beamforming and advanced scheduling to address specific indoor challenges.

While mmWave spectrum offers speed and capacity advantages over low-band frequencies, it struggles to penetrate walls.

Puneet Sethi, senior director of product management at Qualcomm, told Mobile World Live “small cells are necessary for 5G networks to reach their full potential, and are especially critical to mmWave networks where indoor coverage via macro networks is not practical”.

He added the company’s work with Corning “aims to solve the challenges of mmWave while delivering capacity and performance benefits for diverse and evolving 5G use cases and experiences”.

Corning added the goal is to deliver “affordable and easy-to-install” 5G networks for offices, university campuses, hospitals, hotels, shopping centres and other venues.

Details on availability will be announced later this year.

Corning previously partnered with Intel on a similar venture in October 2019. Verizon also sought to address indoor coverage, announcing a collaboration with Boingo Wireless in August 2019.