Ericsson has hit a significant 5G milestone by announcing the company's 100th commercial 5G agreement/contract with a unique communications service provider. The figure includes 58 publicly announced contracts and 56 live 5G networks (opens in new tab), spanning five continents.
The list of the company’s existing clients is impressive, and includes the li9kes of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, O2, Vodafone, Orange France, Deutsche Telekom, KT, KDDI, Telstra, Optus, China Mobile and China Telecom.
“We are proud that this commitment has resulted in 100 unique communications service providers globally selecting our technology."
Börje Ekholm, Ericsson.
"Our customers' needs have been central to the development and evolution of Ericsson's 5G technology across our portfolio from the very beginning,” said Börje Ekholm, president and CEO at Ericsson. “We are proud that this commitment has resulted in 100 unique communications service providers globally selecting our technology to drive their 5G success ambitions.”
Developing 5G use cases
The milestone was reached with the announcement of the 5G deal with Telekom Slovenije, a Slovenian communications service provider, which launched the first commercial 5G network in Slovenia on July 23, 2020. With Matjaž Beričič, CTO at Telekom Slovenije, saying that “Upgrading existing our 4G networks to 5G puts Slovenia on the map of the most digitally advanced countries”.
“We continue to put our customers center stage to help them deliver the benefits of 5G to their subscribers, industry, society and countries as a critical national infrastructure,” explained Ekholm.
Ericsson has worked with major service provider partners since 2014, where initial technology engagements and memorandum of understanding (MoU) partnerships were followed by 5G New Radio (NR) technology testing and trials. Commercial deals and network roll-out announcements then followed, with the first live commercial launches announced in 2018.
Ericsson has also worked with service providers, universities, technology institutes, and industry partners to develop business and consumer 5G use cases, such as IIoT, smart factory automation, telemedicine, and remote surgery. For example, Ericsson helped China Unicom and Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. to upgrade the Port of Qingdao to a more automated facility, providing more flexibility and higher efficiency.
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