Ericsson Year in Review 2022: January to June

2022 was a big innovation year for Ericsson, our customers and our partners. As the year closes, Ericsson is live with 5G in 61 countries, powering innovative consumer and enterprise applications across 137 5G networks. Join us for the first of a two-part look back on some of our 2022 news.

NEWS

DEC 22, 2022

#Ericsson2022

January: Throwing down the gauntlet for a year of innovation

The year began with a strong message from Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm on the power of connectivity to unleash new innovation and address global crises including climate change and the digital divide. In his LEAP 2022 address in Riyadh, Ekholm set the bar high for what would be a significant year for innovation.

In the UK, Ericsson was named as EE’s network partner for The Green Planet AR Experience – a showcase trial of next generation of media experiences made possible by 5G Standalone private networks and edge computing. In Australia, Ericsson joined forces with Telstra to deploy an Ericsson Private 5G for enterprise, an on-premise dedicated 5G network that utilises single-server 5G dual mode core.

With network traffic demands growing worldwide, Ericsson announced a new collaboration with du in the UAE to deploy its leading generation of energy-efficient 5G radios, helping to lower the network’s carbon footprint as 5G continued to gain momentum in the region.

Ericsson rounded off the month with the launch of a new Dynamic Network Slice Selection feature, enabling multiple tailored slices for 5G devices and giving CSPs the power to steer traffic to maximize quality of experience.

February: MWC returns to Barcelona amid a flurry of breakthroughs

February served up a month of breakthroughs, new partnerships and some landmark 5G deployments.

About 60 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan, Ericsson announced that it had deployed Asia’s first offshore private network service together with Chunghwa Telecom and Ørsted wind farms. The private network – far beyond the coverage of Taiwan’s terrestrial networks – delivered a significant milestone for private network applications in the renewable energy sector.

Not far away in Oceania, Ericsson was serving up two more technology milestones. Together with Optus, Ericsson announced the deployment of the region’s first triple-band 4G/5G radio, while together with Telstra and Microsoft, Ericsson announced that it was trialling Australia’s first 5G-enabled edge compute solution for enterprises. In the same technology space, Ericsson also announced the launch of a new Edge Exposure Server, enabling new enterprise and consumer services through simple and enriched APIs for applications at the edge.

In the Middle East, 5G continued its ascent with Ericsson announcing multiple deals with stc, including an MoU to explore the technical capabilities of 5G and beyond. In the same month, Ericsson also announced a new partnership with Mobily to develop industrial 5G in Saudi Arabia.

In Europe, MWC returned to Barcelona for the first time since before the Covid pandemic and brought a flurry of new milestones and product releases. These included an array of new energy-efficient additions to Ericsson’s leading 5G RAN portfolio.

Ericsson closed the month by announcing two 5G breakthrough proof of concepts: a world-first implementation of global 5G end-to-end network slicing with guaranteed Quality of Service, together with Deutsche Telekom; and a 5G interactive calling demo together with Telefónica and Samsung.

March: Ericsson’s technology leadership reaffirmed

Sustainability was high on the agenda in March as Ericsson published its 2021 Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report. The report documented a year of sustainability highs including achieving a 36 percent energy saving from delivered Ericsson Radio System radios one year ahead of schedule. It also reaffirmed strong commitment to working across and beyond the ICT ecosystem to achieve sustainability goals. In the same month, Ericsson paid testament to this commitment by announcing a new collaboration with partners IIT Kanpur and Airtel to monitor air quality in Jaipur, India.

There was also high praise for Ericsson in the ICT industry with Ericsson being named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for 5G Network Infrastructure for Communications Service Providers report, as well as being recognized at the GTI Awards 2022 for “Innovative Breakthrough in Mobile Technology” for Ericsson Time-Critical Communication.

Meanwhile, innovation continued to dominate the news reel with a series of announcements confirming Ericsson’s technology leadership. This included an industry-first connectivity boost app together with SmarTone, the UK’s first on-demand 5G network slice together with Vodafone, and the world’s first 5G Dynamic Radio Resource Partitioning capable of serving six operators over a single network together with Malaysian partner DNB. Ericsson also launched the Ericsson Local Packet Gateway in March, enabling CSPs to unlock innovative edge opportunities in both hybrid private networks segments and on the network edge.

March also saw 5G make headway in Canada with the launch of the market’s first commercial 5G standalone network together with Rogers, as well as the launch of Eastlink’s first 5G network in the same market.

April: A landmark shipment at Ericsson’s 5G factory in Poland

In April, in Illinois, US, Ericsson announced a new initiative with Illinois Electric Cooperative and XtremeLTE to connect underserved rural businesses and communities through network upgrades including 4G Massive MIMO.

In the Middle East, Ericsson signed another landmark MoU, this time with Batelco in Bahrain which sealed the partners’ ambition to explore a range of 5G technologies, including smart city development. In the same month, Ericsson also announced a new addition to its Cognitive Software portfolio that combines digital twin technology with advanced AI techniques.

In other news, celebrations were in order at Ericsson’s 5G manufacturing center in Tczew, Poland, as the factory shipped out its one millionth Ericsson 5G product. At the same time, Ericsson also announced that it was teaming up with Telefónica and Dataport in Hamburg, Germany to launch the first 5G standalone campus test lab network for public sector digitalization.

April also saw Ericsson announcing the suspension of business with customers in Russia.

May: All eyes on the future as growth takes center stage

In May all eyes were on the future as Ericsson announced plans for a re-structure as well as a wave of renewed investments in R&D.

In Ireland, Ericsson revealed plans to bolster its R&D center in Athlone with hundreds of new cloud native software developers, engineers and architects. While on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Ericsson cut the ribbon on a new Global Utilities Innovation Center at its facility in Plano, Texas – designed to enable utilities companies to solve real-world connectivity challenges.

Ericsson also announced plans to change its group structure in May with a strong focus on growth both in traditional markets, as well as new emerging markets. This meant the formation of two new business areas: Cloud Software and Services, and Enterprise Wireless Solutions.

In May, the world’s ICT- and enterprise leaders converged on Germany for the 2022 Hannover Messe. In attendance were hundreds of Ericsson experts and partners who took center stage with demonstrations that ranged from automated guided vehicles to 3D camera sensors.

Meanwhile in Norway, R&D work was underway to lay a wireless foundation for such high-performance industrial applications as Ericsson and Telia announced record-level download speeds of close to 4 Gbit/s during 5G tests in the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum.

Ericsson closed the month by announcing possible major advances in sustainable mobile site operations based on a successful renewable energy trial together with Deutsche Telekom.

June: Shifting gear on network slicing and future innovation

5G was confirmed as the fastest growing mobile generation in June as Ericsson released the latest industry figures in the Ericsson Mobility Report. Among the report’s highlights, it was revealed that global mobile network data traffic doubled in the past two years, with Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) accounting for 20 percent of all mobile data network traffic in the first half of 2022.

A rise in the deployment of 5G standalone (SA) networks was also confirmed as CSPs prepared to gear up for a new age of innovation with new mobile business models. Network slicing, one of the key enablers of emerging innovation, also featured high on the news reels. Together with OPPO and Qualcomm, Ericsson successfully trialed 5G enterprise network slicing on a commercial Android 12 handset – a significant step to bringing the benefits of network slicing to enterprises. In Turin, Italy, Ericsson teamed up with TIM and Comau to test 5G network slicing with robotics, digital twins, real-time industrial monitoring, and remote telepresence as part of the EU-funded 5Growth project.

From network mobility, to cross-border mobility – Ericsson teamed up with Deutsche Telekom in June to trial 5G-powered predictive vehicle collision warning across national borders. And the trials didn’t stop with road-bound vehicles: in a separate initiative with UScellular, Ericsson announced it was taking to the skies to begin tests on 5G network performance for cellular-connected drones at altitude.

As the first half-year closed, attention turned to the future of work and indoor 5G connectivity. In a special Ericsson podcast episode on the future of work, experts had their say on how wellbeing, innovation and talent acquisition are currently being transformed in the workplaces of the future. In Sweden, the paradigm of indoor connectivity was also shifting as Ericsson announced it was teaming up with Proptivity to launch first Neutral Host 5G network.

Selected January to June Ericsson news links

Ericsson CEO: 3 ways telecom can drive global innovation in 2022

Ericsson partners with EE to showcase 5G Standalone technology in the Green Planet AR Experience

Telstra deploys industry-first Ericsson Private 5G for enterprise

du deploys Ericsson’s new radio to reduce network carbon footprint

Ericsson enables multiple tailored slices for smartphones with Dynamic Network Slice Selection launch

Chunghwa Telecom and Ericsson deliver the Asia-first private network service for Ørsted offshore wind farms

Optus and Ericsson deliver triple-band radio unit 4G/5G technology innovation

Telstra collaborates with Ericsson and Microsoft to begin 5G-enabled edge compute trials

Ericsson to extend network exposure to the edge

stc partners with Ericsson for 5G Core and BSS transformation for 5G standalone

stc and Ericsson sign MoU at MWC 2022 for 5G and beyond