Ericsson executives give insight into historic venture with major operators

• Ericsson hosted an exclusive September 12 event in Boston for industry analysts and media focused on its strategy to drive enterprise digitalization and innovation through 5G technology

At the event, Ericsson executives spoke at length about the historic collaboration, announced the same day, between Ericsson and some of the world’s largest telecom operators - including  América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.

The communication service providers (CSPs) are opening their networks to make advanced network capabilities easily accessible through a global platform for combined network APIs.

Partnership is beginning of a network effect

Speakers including Ericsson Chief Technology Officer Erik Ekudden and Niklas Heuveldop, CEO of Vonage and Head of Business Area Global Communications Platform, talked about Ericsson’s role in the upcoming venture and its potential for accelerating digitalization.

“We are embracing openness, embracing hyperscale and making it easy for developers to work with us,” Heuveldop says. “This is a historic and industry-defining announcement. It takes scale to get developers excited, and this will get developers excited.”

Ericsson is leading the recruitment effort for the leadership team for the new venture and is already talking with other potential CSP partners around the world. Vonage and Google Cloud will partner with the new company, providing access to their ecosystems of millions of developers as well as their partners.

Several high-profile partners took the stage with Heuveldop to talk about the new partnership, including Chris Halton, Vice President, Product Strategy & Innovation, Verizon; Peter Arbiter, SVP MagentaBusiness API Capability Exposure, Deutsche Telekom; and Rick Balakier, Director, Technology Innovation & Industry Partnerships, T-Mobile.

Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions

Åsa Tamsons, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Enterprise Wireless Solutions, also spoke about a major brand transition for the Enterprise Wireless division.

“Four years after acquiring Cradlepoint and with the formation of Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions last year, which included our Ericsson Private Networks, we have now united under the Ericsson brand,” she says. “I am incredibly proud to lead the newly united teams of Cradlepoint, Ericsson Private 5G, and Ericom under the singular Ericsson brand.”

Tamsons described how enterprise customers will benefit from Ericsson’s leadership in 5G, Cradlepoint’s enterprise expertise, and Ericom’s security capabilities.

“This unification under Ericsson underscores our unwavering global commitment to the enterprise sector for the long-term, and our dedication to innovate and ensure we have the leading technology, a first-class unified team, and the most empowered channel partners - all working to deliver secure, reliable Wireless WAN and private networking solutions that just work,” she adds.

The US as a key market for Ericsson

The Boston event followed a similar event in May 2024 at Ericsson’s 5G Smart Factory in Lewisville, Texas, which highlighted significant commitments by the company into the North America region.

"North America is one of our key regions for Ericsson, and holding this event underscores our commitment to working with partners here and engaging with the US tech ecosystem,” said Pami Vadher, Head of Industry Analyst Relations, Ericsson.