Scandinavian telecoms and networking giant partner with a number of Chinese companies and Swedish telecoms provider Telia to deliver significant 5G roll out in major field service operations across both regions.

5G roll-out paves way for enhanced field service mobility

China Telecom and China Unicom have selected Ericsson as a 5G radio access network (RAN) vendor as part of the Communication Service Providers’ (CSP) joint nationwide 5G network. China Telecom has also selected Ericsson as a 5G Core vendor.

Ericsson will provide outdoor and indoor site solutions to build capacity and coverage in the 3.5GHz and 2.1GHz bands. Network services including provisioning, installation and testing will be provided to meet the CSPs’ technical needs and enable them to build and share 5G networks.

China Telecom has also selected Ericsson 5G Core portfolio solutions. These include Cloud Packet Core, Cloud Unified Data Management and Policy products, built on cloud-native technology for operational efficiency and agility to launch new 5G services.

In Europe, Swedish communications service provider Telia Company has launched commercial 5G in Stockholm with Ericsson (RAN) products and. Initial services on the 700Mhz band will cover most of central Stockholm by mid-June.

Telia aims to enhance and supplement its low-band 5G commercial services with additional nationwide 5G coverage, including mid and high-bands, following the auction of the related spectrum by the Swedish government later this year. For this launch Telia is using its existing 700MHz spectrum, boosted by LTE and New Radio (NR) carrier aggregation.

Having already partnered successfully on 5G in Sweden including the country’s first industrial 5G network, Telia selected Ericsson as its partner for the launch network. Earlier this month Telia’s sister company Telia Norway also launched its first commercial 5G services, with Ericsson as its 5G RAN supplier.

The service sector is set to take advantage of global 5G coverage as increased speed of mobile connectivity offers further enhancement to mobile computing in the field.

Commenting Allison Kirkby, CEO, Telia Company, said: “As we roll-out 5G across Sweden, we will open up new user experiences and accelerated innovation in areas such as entertainment, healthcare, manufacturing and transport, that will collectively strengthen and protect everyone living and working in Sweden, and Swedish competitiveness in the world.

Further Reading:

• Read more about 5G usage in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/5g
• Read more about mobile computing in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/mobility
• Read more about more about empowering field workers @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about digital transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about Ericcson from their blog @ https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2020/5/the-key-to-mobility-robustness-5g-networks 

Ericsson's smart factory in Lewisville, Texas, has produced its first 5G base station. Announced last year, the factory will be one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the industry when it is fully operational later this year.

The first product manufactured at the factory is the millimeter-wave Street Macro solution, which is key to Ericsson’s 5G portfolio for its North American customers. All radio access components are housed in one lightweight enclosure, allowing service providers to rapidly grow 5G coverage in complex city environments.

The Street Macro solution, part of the Ericsson Radio System portfolio, is also helping to provide Ericsson’s 5G-enabled connectivity in the smart factory.

Erik Simonsson, Head of the USA 5G Smart Factory, Ericsson, says: “We’re excited to produce advanced 5G radio products for our U.S. customers, to meet the demand for next-generation 5G networks across the country. It’s also exciting to use our own 5G products in the factory for wireless connectivity to increase production efficiency. With the first 5G base stations now rolling off the production line, we are on target this year to have the most fully automated, sustainable 5G smart factory in the U.S.”

Ericsson’s fast and secure 5G connectivity will enable the smart factory with agile operations and flexible production, utilizing industrial solutions such as automated warehouses, connected logistics, automated assembly, packing, product handling and autonomous carts. Ericsson will initially employ approximately 100 people at the facility.

The new USA 5G Smart Factory complements Ericsson’s global supply strategy, which ensures the company is working close to its customers through its American, European and Asian operations, securing fast and agile deliveries to meet customer requirements.

Ericsson and Japanese communications service provider KDDI have successfully demonstrated cloud-native CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) pipeline delivery for KDDI’s standalone 5G Core network – a breakthrough in delivering software features speedily and efficiently.

The container-based technology enables automatic deployment of new software and functionalities, while maintaining the high quality and availability of the 5G Core network.

Communications service providers need faster and more efficient software delivery models to reduce time-to-market for new features. Given the complexity of telecommunications networks - where solutions are often comprised of multivendor products with real time applications - legacy delivery mechanisms will be insufficient to cope with the demands of 5G networks. Ericsson’s cloud-native CI/CD delivery model addresses this challenge.  

Ericsson and KDDI partnered to create a cross-organizational end-to-end 5G CI/CD pipeline – moving from native to virtualized and cloud-native network functions.  The pipeline seamlessly deploys software from Ericsson’s product development units into the KDDI’s environment without human intervention.

The CI/CD pipeline speeds up the software acceptance process through the advanced automation of software distribution, deployment, validation and feedback, while reducing human-error risks.

It shortens time to market of new software from months to weeks. Ericsson’s CI/CD pipeline enabled KDDI to deploy complicated sliced and distributed network functions more easily through simplified workflows.

Jan Karlsson, Head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson, says: “Our market-leading 5G core and unique CI/CD capabilities mean faster time-to-market, higher performance and cost efficiency. Agile delivery of services while maintaining high quality and availability is a must in 5G Core networks. Our CI/CD end-to-end software pipeline achieves this. We are happy to continue to work with KDDI to automate their network operation.”

Ericsson has launched two new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered offerings in its Network Services portfolio, enabling communications service providers to secure always-on networks and deliver optimal user experiences.

The two new portfolio additions — Network Intelligence and Omni Network Channel – are part of  Ericsson’s Network Services offering. They employ AI, automation and predictive analytics to address the complex reality faced by communications service providers: exponential data growth and the continuous introduction of new technologies such as 5G, digital transformation, and scattered information sources and insights.

Network Intelligence is an AI-driven preemptive support service that allows issues to be identified and resolved before they impact network performance. The service prevents critical outages and delivers the network stability needed for service continuity and optimal end-to-end performance.  Ericsson research shows that Network Intelligence reduces critical incidents by up to 35 percent by carrying out selective data collection, and automatically resolves issues within an average of five minutes from data collection.

Omni Network Channel is a unified digital workspace for interaction between the communications service provider and Ericsson, providing easy navigation, self-help and smooth collaboration. The workspace enhances network performance and consumer satisfaction through faster resolution of both the communications service provider and Ericsson operations’ issues. It also facilitates the adoption of new technologies such as 5G and supports communications service providers with the competence development of their personnel.

Roger O’ Hargan, Head of Service Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “Our core value is ‘Technology enhanced by people’ where people, framework and technology are our main assets. These new offerings are all about putting the service provider in the center by enabling self-help as well as smooth collaboration, co-creation, and easy access to data – all of which will help secure an always-on network experience.”

Justin van der Lande, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason, says: “There is a demand among service providers for a more transparent interaction with their vendors when dealing with network issues. Ericsson’s intelligent workplace technology, boosted by the expertise of their people, addresses this well. This approach leverages the scale of Ericsson’s operations, its well-established frameworks and its wealth of industry knowledge to bring significant benefits to the service provider. Ericsson’s AI-powered Network Services are now readily accessible with shared data insights that put the customer experience front and center.”

Network Intelligence is built for product-near use as a natural extension of the Network Services portfolio. It is complementary to the Ericsson Operations Engine, Ericsson’s offering for managed operations, design and optimization launched in January 2019.

Data call connects Bern, Switzerland and Gold Coast, Australia using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing over live commercial 5G networks and commercial form factor 5G smartphones.

Ericsson to deploy 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) and core network.

Bharti Airtel’s Core network to be enhanced with the deployment of Ericsson Cloud Packet Core.

Ericsson has been selected by Korean communication service provider LG U+ as a 5G radio access network (RAN) vendor for its 3.5 GHz Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G network. Ericsson has already been selected by LG U+ as a preferred 5G core network vendor.

First commercial 5G services expected in March 2020.