Ericsson bags multi-operator 5G deal from Asia-Pacific Telecom

Swedish telecoms gear maker Ericsson said it has bagged a 5G deal from Asia-Pacific Telecom (APT) which will modernize the telco’s network and support with Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G multi-operator Core network readiness.

This includes integration with Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) on the 3.5GHz frequency band in Taiwan.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will provide its radio access network (RAN) solutions from its 5G-ready Ericsson Radio System portfolio as well as 5G NSA licenses to do 5G Multi-Operator Core Networks (MOCN).

The contract also covers Ericsson Network Manager, OSS migration services, and upgrade.

In September 2020, FET and APT announced a partnership to provide 5G services on Taiwan’s 3.5GHz frequency band through the nation’s first MOCN – where two or more core networks share the same RAN and bandwidth. The collaboration includes 700MHz shared RAN to be used on both 4G and 5G technologies.

Under the deal, mobile sites of the telco will be upgraded with the latest Ericsson 5G RAN technology while the currently installed Ericsson basebands will be modernized to the latest 5G technology standard.

“Ericsson continues to accelerate the overall progress of 5G development in Taiwan, supporting both APT and FET to quickly launch new services to market and provide Taiwanese consumers and enterprises with the highest quality communication services,” said Chafic Nassif, President of Ericsson Taiwan.

The deployment of Ericsson Network Manager will further enable APT to dynamically operate between 4G and 5G networks while unified applications will help in enabling secure management of radio access, transport, and core network in an end-to-end manner, according to an official statement.

Ericsson now has 124 commercial 5G agreements with communications service providers globally, 74 of which have been publicly announced.