Ericsson released details of four new products designed to ease operators' path to 5G, the Internet of Things and cloud technology that it will demonstrate at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress.
The infrastructure vendor said the new technologies will assist service providers in accessing the new value chains, financial models and business opportunities offered by the trio of technologies, by meeting demand for growing diversity in the way networks are used and an increased focus on network performance.
Although billed as assisting the shift to 5G, Ericsson's first product is designed to wring the most out of current WCDMA infrastructure.
The company's Mobile Broadband for Everyone solution consists of technology that doubles the performance of existing WCDMA infrastructure, increases the operational efficiency of the networks three-fold, and reduces the total cost of ownership by up to 60 per cent. Ericsson said the solution will be fully available in the second quarter of 2016.
Arun Bansal, SVP and Head of Business Unit Radio at Ericsson, explained that 3G networks "will continue to be the foundation as mobile broadband brings new possibilities to people and industries around the world."
Ericsson's second launch -- also due in the second quarter -- covers new radio system software and hardware that is designed to enable LTE networks to deliver peak data rates of 1 Gbps. The company also plans to add a trio of new radio access products to its line up, which will cover 4x4 MIMO and new spectrum bands, and is lining up new microwave products designed to address the need for multi-gigabit capacity and multi-band access in the backhaul.
Bansal said the radio software will drive "network performance and efficiency improvements" operators will need as they "evolve to 5G."
The vendor's third launch is its Experience Centric Managed services offering, which it said will enable operators to improve the quality of services including video streaming and web browsing by offering real-time monitoring of network performance.
Ericsson said the managed services product will utilise feedback from customer surveys, social media analytics, net performance score studies and churn analysis to ensure the required level of service performance is achieved. The product is available immediately.
An updated billing system is also part of Ericsson's MWC demonstrations. Due to launch in June, the company's Revenue Manager offers real-time charging and billing capabilities to digital service providers. Ericsson said the solution uses a "breakthrough, cloud-based highly configurable architecture to deliver new levels of automation, flexibility and operational efficiency."
For more:
- see this Ericsson MWC announcement
- view the company's WCDMA statement
- read Ericsson's Radio Access release
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