By Emmanuel Oluebube, Correspondent UK

Ericsson has achieved a significant 5G milestone by securing the company’s 100th commercial 5G agreement or contract with unique communications service providers. The figure includes 58 publicly announced contracts and 56 live 5G networks, spanning five continents.

The milestone was reached with the announcement of the 5G deal with Telekom Slovenije on  August 12. Ericsson has worked with major service provider partners since the early days of 5G R&D development. The company’s first public 5G partnership announcement came in 2014.

Initial technology engagements and memorandum of understanding (MoU) partnerships were followed by 5G New Radio (NR) technology testing and trials. Commercial deals and network roll-out announcements followed. The first live commercial launches were announced in 2018.

Ericsson’s contracts span Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core network deployments, enabled by products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System and Ericsson Cloud Core network portfolios.

Ericsson 5G deployments include 5G Non-Standalone, 5G Standalone and Ericsson Spectrum Sharing technology. They also include cloud native capabilities with Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core.

Ericsson has deployed 5G in high-, mid- and low-bands in different urban, suburban and rural environments to support enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless access business cases. In some advanced 5G markets, communication service providers are offering 5G-enabled augmented reality and virtual reality services in education, entertainment and gaming.

President and CEO, Ericsson, Börje Ekholm says: “Our customers’ needs have been central to the development and evolution of Ericsson’s 5G technology across our portfolio from the very beginning. We are proud that this commitment has resulted in 100 unique communications service providers globally selecting our technology to drive their 5G success ambitions. We continue to put our customers center stage to help them deliver the benefits of 5G to their subscribers, industry, society and countries as a critical national infrastructure.”

Ericsson has also worked with service providers, universities, technology institutes, and industry partners to develop and pursue 5G business and consumer use cases. These use cases include factory automation, smart offices, remote surgery and other enterprise and Industry 4.0 applications.

Some partnerships have resulted in the deployment of 5G dedicated networks, including at Ericsson production facilities globally.