Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Emirati telecommunication giant e& and Sweden’s Ericsson announced completing a successful 5G data call test using Ericsson’s Cloud Radio Access Network (RAN) setup in a lab setting in the UAE.
The results of the trial showed that Ericsson's Cloud RAN solution met e& UAE’s performance expectations and is ready to support their 5G network plans, according to a press release.
This trial aligns with the Cloud RAN memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the two companies at GITEX GLOBAL 2023 in Dubai.
Ericsson Cloud RAN is built on cloud-native principles and open architecture with standardised interfaces compatible with Ericsson Radio System products and solutions already in use by e&.
Marwan BinShakar, SVP of Access Network Development at e& UAE, said: “We, along with our partner Ericsson, have a long-standing commitment to delivering a world-class network using the latest solutions in the telecom industry to provide superior customer experience.”
“This new milestone marks an important step forward on e& UAE’s 5G evolutionary path as it opens the door to the next generation of high-quality connectivity, empowering our customers for the future,” BinShakar added.
Ekow Nelson, Vice President and Head of Global Customer Unit for e& at Ericsson Middle East and Africa, commented: “Ericsson Cloud RAN leverages the capabilities of Cloud native technologies to deploy and scale mobile networks flexibly and efficiently without performance trade-offs.”
Nelson explained: “The flexibility to place RAN functions in a distributed deployment in existing data centres, public cloud, or at the edge of the network will enable providers to scale compute resources efficiently and for different use cases as needed.”
In 2022, etisalat, the telecom arm of e&, partnered with Ericsson to enhance network energy efficiency by deploying the latest Ericsson radio system portfolio across the service provider’s network.
It is worth noting that e& posted a 3% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated net profits attributable to the owners to AED 10.30 billion from AED 10 billion.
