Ericsson has been named the clear overall leader in ABI Research’s competitive ranking of 5G RAN Automation Platform vendors. As Communication Service Providers (CSPs) seek to gain revenue and commercial advantage through intelligent use of AI tools, greater network autonomy and more open systems, the adoption of these platforms is seen as a fundamental ingredient for success.
The newly published analysis from ABI Research compared eight global vendors, examining each company’s strengths and weaknesses and scoring them for innovation and implementation. An overall company score was then calculated from those two categories. Ericsson and its Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) platform, the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), emerged as the #1 vendor for RAN Automation Platforms.
As part of the analysis, it was also named as the leader in the implementation ranking. This reflects the strength of Ericsson’s platform in terms of the number of live networks it is running on, noting six commercial references for the platform at different phases of implementation. EIAP has been selected by customers across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, with CSPs such as AT&T, Swisscom, Telstra, Vodafone and others choosing it as the platform to support and drive their automation journeys. The score also accounts for the broader real-world commercial aspects of the platform as well as its proven multi-vendor interoperability and integration, application ecosystem, engagement and business model and geographic reach.
The platform has a unique level of openness, democratizing and accelerating innovation on top of the platform for pro-code and low-code developers (powered by extensive developer support, including GenAI assistance), as well as its capacity to manage all RAN including purpose-built and Cloud RAN, Ericsson’s own RAN systems and those from third parties.
The report highlights Ericsson’s rApp Directory, noting that Ericsson has established “a comprehensive ecosystem of rApps, enabling operators and third-party developers to leverage the capabilities of EIAP to independently develop automation applications.” As of today, that ecosystem, the largest in the industry, is home to nearly 90 member companies of which more than 20 are CSPs, who have made approximately 90 rApps available with more being added with every quarterly update. Ericsson itself currently contributes over 25 rApps to this ecosystem.
It also describes Ericsson’s significant efforts in bringing AI at scale to its RAN automation offering, including through its proprietary rApps. It highlights Ericsson’s boundary pushing work in joining the best of Ericsson’s Telco AI with the best of public cloud Agentic AI capabilities to catalyze the evolution of autonomous networks, including the integration of Agentic AI into rApps to enable intent management and support operator efforts in achieving Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy.
The platform itself supports CSP’s adoption of advanced AI and automation through its own capabilities and the AI-powered rApps available. It does this through consolidated and efficient data management with near-real time exposure, insight generation and data product exposure, execution of ML models, and is evolving with GenAI native capabilities.
Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management, Ericsson says: “Ericsson’s leadership position in this objective ranking is a welcome recognition of how EIAP is transforming network engineering and operations by democratizing rApp development, fostering an open ecosystem, and enabling AI based closed loop automation at scale in any network. With bold and ambitious targets for automation, efficiency and AI integration now common with global CSPs, it is immensely gratifying to see our work and collaboration with the ecosystem to help the industry meet these goals has been acknowledged.“
Jean-Christophe Laneri, Head of SA Cognitive Network Solutions, Ericsson says: “This recognition also acknowledges our efforts to drive an open ecosystem of rApps from CSPs and independent developers, where we also contribute our own AI-powered rApps that blend the best of telco domain expertise with AI research. The standard interfaces to the network (R1) which the platform supports, enables Ericsson’s own rApps to deliver proven value on a global scale across key telecom workflows like network deployment, optimization and healing.”
The assessment may be seen here. Ericsson will host a range of demonstrations and presentations regarding the EIAP and its rApp ecosystem at its booth at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, some alongside ecosystem members and partners. To explore the platform and the strengths that have led to its #1 ranking, see the EIAP web pages.
PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date