Ericsson now has more than 70 commercial 5G agreements
Zain has selected Ericsson to modernize its network in Bahrain from LTE to 5G. Ericsson is providing 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software from its Ericsson Radio System portfolio, as well as the Ericsson Cloud Packet Core and Voice over LTE solutions. Commercial 5G services are expected to go live before the end of 2019.
Zain Bahrain Chairman, His Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Khalifa, commented that Zain Bahrain is
“excited” about working with Ericsson. According to a press release, Zain is hoping the partnership will help the telecom keep up with growing data traffic demands and “rapidly evolving” consumer needs.
He added, “5G is expected to be the connectivity infrastructure that will foster industrial and societal transformation. It is about a network infrastructure that is easy and can be used for all sorts of different and personalized usages. It could unlock the full capabilities of the latest technology trends and become an innovation platform and an opportunity for Zain Bahrain to provide specialized network services to a series of new industry partners: from the automotive, to health to energy sectors.”
Fadi Pharaon, president of Ericsson Middle East & Africa, said, “5G promises to accelerate the digitization of industries, presenting new opportunities and enabling service providers to launch the most advanced technologies while improving the end-user experience with faster speeds and lower latency.”
In addition to improving operational efficiency, the 5G-ready radio access and core network infrastructure rollout also enhances network capabilities for IoT applications and other potential future services.
Recently, Ericsson scored a number of 5G deals in China, as well. Specifically, Ericsson will work with China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in 2020.
Ericsson now has more than 70 commercial 5G agreements or contracts. Twenty-three are live networks.
