The deployment is the first step towards delivering 5G services as well as laying the foundations for future innovation for Vodafone’s consumer and enterprise customers in both countries.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Ericsson will support Vodafone’s entire cloud-native 5G Core Standalone for packet core applications in both markets.
“Our close collaboration with Ericsson has been significant in taking the next step for 5G innovation,” said Andrea Dona, chief network officer at Vodafone UK.
“In choosing to continue working with Ericsson’s leading solutions, we’re able to address new and developing enterprise, industry and society transformation business in the UK and Germany. Together, we’re creating a new digital area for our customers.”
With the collaboration hailed as a milestone for 5G Standalone connectivity services, 5G Standalone will power high-end, next-gen use cases and support applications requiring the fastest connectivity, highest data rates and lowest latency demands, as well as network slicing capabilities.
In addition, technology and applications such as virtual reality, augmented reality, negligible latency and huge data-handling ability will be best delivered by 5G Standalone – all enabled by the secure network slicing, edge computing and service exposure capabilities of 5G Standalone core.
“As key partners in Vodafone’s digital journey, we have deployed 5G across Europe after years of joint innovation,” said Arun Bansal, president of Europe and Latin America at Ericsson.
“Now, expanding on our existing Radio Access Network, our core network portfolio has been entrusted to bring 5G to the next level in Germany and the UK. With the economic, enterprise and societal gains 5G offers, I am truly excited to see both Germany and the UK flourish.”
In the UK, the deployment will take place over five years and make Ericsson a key end-to-end 5G network partner for Vodafone. Deployment has already started in Germany, including the launch of its commercial 5G Standalone network in April 2021.
