SoftBank Partners with Ericsson for Cloud-Native 5G Core

According to a recent announcement, SoftBank has selected Ericsson to deliver cloud native 5G Core for SoftBank’s 5G Standalone Network. The solution, which reportedly includes Ericsson Cloud Packet Core, Ericsson Cloud Unified Data Management and Policy, and Ericsson NFVI, will play a key role in SoftBank’s operational transformation, the company said in the release.

These high-level 5G implementations, including the one from Nokia we covered here, are showing that the Industrial and Enterprise IoT is ready to roll with 5G, but re being very cautious in choosing partners: only the most established, enterprise-level providers seems to be getting these high-profile partnerships. Perhaps there’s still some doubt in the industry on the short-term efficacy of the technology and no one wants to be left out in the cold?

Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core is designed to enable development of new 5G use cases for mobile broadband users and for enterprises and industry partners. Ericsson and SoftBank have been collaborating in developing and deploying 5G technologies throughout the Japanese market and in May 2019, Ericsson was selected to be Softbank’s primary 5G radio access network (RAN) vendor.

“Japan is a leading 5G telecom market and together with Ericsson we are building a new platform of innovation for the country,” said Keiichi Makizono, Senior Vice President, CIO of SoftBank. “Under our new agreement, we will extend our long-term partnership and provide a high quality and future-proof platform enabling a new wave of innovation for Japanese society.”

“Ericsson’s cloud native dual-mode 5G Core provides the cutting-edge container-based microservice architecture that will help SoftBank to both develop new business models towards consumers, enterprise and industry partners as well as to move onto the next level of network operational efficiency,” said Luca Orsini, Head of Ericsson Japan.

Ericsson currently has 99 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique operators and supports 54 live 5G networks worldwide.