Swisscom and Ericsson have announced a deal extension on their long-term strategic partnership. This three year deal will allow the Swiss teleco to take advantage of Ericsson’s entire 5G portfolio, focusing on continued 5G deployment, including 5G Standalone rollout. 5G Standalone will enable Swisscom to deliver superior network performance and new use cases to its customers.
“We have access to the best deployment solutions for 5G.”
Mark Düsener, Swisscom.
“Together, we have been first in Europe to turn on 5G commercially and have proven your technological leadership and our innovation capability. This new deal confirms our joint commitment to follow this path and to further accelerate the development of 5G technology. We are continuously working to provide our customers with the latest 5G experiences and in Ericsson, we have access to the best deployment solutions for 5G,” said Mark Düsener, Head of Mobile & Mass Market Communication, Swisscom.
Leading 5G transformation in Europe
Swisscom and Ericsson began their strategic partnership in 2015, extending it to include 5G in 2017. Together, the companies switched on the first European commercial 5G network in 2019 and recently made the first voice and data calls over a commercial 5G Standalone network in Europe, giving the green light to continued network evolution. Having just renewed the deal again, their ambition is to lead 5G technology transformation in Europe.
5G Standalone
The partnership extension is a big step towards transitioning Swisscom’s live 5G network to 5G Standalone mode with cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core. This is to include container-based Ericsson Cloud Packet Core and Ericsson Cloud Unified Data Management and Policy. The deal also covers Ericsson Radio System products and solutions, which include 5G NR carrier aggregation and 5G RAN Slicing.
“Helping enterprises and consumers to accelerate 5G to Standalone.”
Martin Bürki, Ericsson Switzerland.
“Our strengthening partnership with Swisscom will open up new opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 domains. This deal is further helping enterprises and consumers to accelerate 5G to Standalone with ultra-low latency and higher data rates. We’re a proud partner to Swisscom and we want to continue to provide their customers with best-in-class 5G technology,” said Martin Bürki, Country Manager, Ericsson Switzerland.
The deal will provide Swisscom with a defined scope to enhance customer experience through a superior network, artificial intelligence/machine learning powered design and optimisation and innovative solutions, over the next three years. Through increasing automation, artificial intelligence/machine learning and with cognitive software for network optimisation and cloud native infrastructure, Swisscom customers with 5G phones will be able to utilize the 5G benefits of even higher speeds, lower latencies and network slicing.
As of April 2021, 96 percent of the Swiss population is covered by Swisscom 5G. In the latest network testing from CHIP, Swisscom topped the Switzerland/Germany/Austria region for delivering the best performance in mobile surfing, streaming and calling. Umlaut’s 2021 Mobile Network Test DACH also saw Swisscom come out top against the other 5G networks, in all categories, including 5G and in-train coverage.
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