Ericsson has signed its 100th commercial 5G agreement, a significant milestone in the telecoms equipment manufacturer’s battle with Nokia and Huawei.
The Swedish firm signed its first partnerships back in 2014, working with operators on trials of 5G New Radio (NR) technology, with the first commercial networks going live four years later.
The century figure was achieved through a deal with Telekom Slovenije to launch Slovenia’s first next-generation network last month. To date, Ericsson kit is used in 58 commercial deployments world wide and covers both radio and core network technologies.
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Ericsson 5G
“Our customers’ needs have been central to the development and evolution of Ericsson’s 5G technology across our portfolio from the very beginning,” said Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm.
“We are proud that this commitment has resulted in 100 unique communications service providers globally selecting our technology to drive their 5G success ambitions. We continue to put our customers centre stage to help them deliver the benefits of 5G to their subscribers, industry, society and countries as a critical national infrastructure.”
Ericsson is increasingly confident about its prospects in the 5G era after demand from operators in Q2 saw networking sales rise by four per cent. The company has secured deals in Europe, North America and Asia – most notably in China where it has contracts with all three major Chinese operators.
Strong momentum from network vendors, operators and the Chinese government means the country is expected to be an early 5G leader and offset any potential slowdown in the US and Europe caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Ericsson has increased its 5G forecast predicting there will be 2.8 billion connections by 2025 – 200 million more than previously estimated.
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