German telecoms provider and system integrator Iconec (stylised iconec) is working with private LTE and 5G specialist Athonet to bring the Italian firm’s core network platform to the German enterprise market. Iconec has deployed an Athonet-made core network at its new lab in Nuremberg, Germany; it will resell the solution to enterprises taking out private spectrum licences in the 3.7-3.8 GHz vertical band in the country.
The new lab is for “preparing and staging” customer equipment, to benchmark various components, integrate customer use cases, certify user equipment and applications, and run demos. It is unclear which vendor Iconec has partnered with on radio access network (RAN) components at its Nuremberg site, or for the sale of private LTE/5G systems.
A press statement said the appeal of the Athonet solution is its ability to work across RAN vendors, as per most private core network solutions. It said: “With Athonet, Iconec is able to cut through the cost, complexity and end-to-end lock-ins to provide unique, high-value solutions to end users that are tailored to their particular use cases and cost requirements.”
It added: “Iconec chose Athonet’s mobile core because it is scalable from tens of users to millions of users and is interoperable with any application using open APIs. In addition, the Athonet mobile core can work with any radio and fits into any network architecture based on the business need.”
Markus Wabner, director of campus networks at Iconec, said: “With Athonet, we are able to offer our customers private networks designed for their business purpose instead of a one-size-fits-all approach market. Private cellular is deployed for some of the most challenging and critical use cases, so it is important to deploy customer-focused solutions that have been field tested for over a decade in the most challenging environments.”
Nanda Menon, senior vice president for corporate development and chief executive of Athonet UK, said: “Athonet has more than a decade of experience in deploying private networks, including Germany’s first at the Nurburgring in 2015, which enables us to provide a strong foundation for Iconec’s campus network solutions in Germany.”
