Ericsson and Cisco will virtualise Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA)’s core and IP network as the operator looks to transform its delivery of services.
The transformation project, the first major telecoms cloud collaboration between Ericsson and Cisco since the vendors launched their strategic partnership in late 2015, will use network slicing to increase its agility and programmability.
It will include adding new applications to drive innovation and improve the customer experience, as well as aims to reduce opex and capex.
Ericsson will lead the transformation project and added it will have responsibility for building infrastructure as well delivering an end to end operational system.
Kevin Millroy, Chief Technology Officer at VHA, said that the new infrastructure “opens the door to new business models and markets, such as Internet of Things for Vodafone – we are excited about the future prospects this partnership offers”.
Rima Qureshi, the Head of Ericsson’s North America region who is responsible for the partnership with Cisco, said that the deal demonstrated Ericsson’s “global end-to-end transformation and operations capabilities as a trusted transformation partner”.
Ericsson will provide data centre systems and software components, while Cisco will offer network service orchestrators, automation solutions and virtual network functions, including security products.
In 2014, Ericsson was picked by VHA to overhaul and upgrade the operator’s core network, which included virtual evolved packet core and virtual IMS/VoLTE.
Since the vendors joined forces it has made deals with 3 Italy, Vodafone Portugal, Aster Dominican Republic and Cable & Wireless in Caribbean in 2016.
The 3 Italy deal in 2016 saw Ericsson and Cisco delivering their latest router technology with a scalable platform to enable personalised services for the telco’s fixed and mobile customers.
In early 2017, the two companies combined their Wi-Fi portfolios to form the Evolved Wi-Fi Networks (EWN) product line, which combines Ericsson’s access, core networks and applications with Cisco’s Wi-Fi portfolio.