
Ericsson and NVIDIA have joined hands to develop technologies that will enable communication service providers to build virtualised 5G radio access networks (RAN), which will accelerate the introduction of new AI and IoT-based services.
With an aim to provide the best possible user experience to customers, communication service providers are trying to find out optional technological solutions and RAN architectures due to the growing demand for virtualisation. Virtualising a complete RAN solution in a cost-, size- and energy-efficient way, which should be comparable with traditional RAN networks, is a major industry challenge now. The ultimate goal is to commercialise virtualised RAN technologies to deliver radio networks with flexibility and ability to enter the market in a shorter time for new services like AR, VR, and gaming.
In September, Ericsson, together with Qualcomm, successfully completed a new 5G milestone in its lab. During this testing period, commercial Ericsson Radio System base stations, along with Ericsson standalone New Radio (NR) software and Ericsson’s 5G Cloud Core solution were used with a mobile smartphone form-factor test device that was powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System. The testing complied to the international 3GPP 5G NR specifications.
Ericsson surpassed quarterly earnings expectations and increased its market forecast for 2019 and sales target for 2020, owing to a quicker increase in demand for superfast 5G networks. In the Q3/2019, the company’s adjusted operating earnings rose to SEK 6.5b from SEK 3.8b a year earlier, corresponding to an 11.4% margin and beating the SEK 5.2b mean forecast seen in a Refinitiv poll of analysts. The company expected 5G deployments in China, where it has invested to gain market share, to start “near term”, adding they were likely to have “challenging margins” initially. It changed its 2022 margin target to 12-14% from more than 12% previously.
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