If Ericsson and Swisscom were a couple the new service portfolio is equivalent to renewing their vows
Swisscom and Ericsson are planning to introduce MPN Private, a fully standalone Mobile Private Network (MPN) offering based on Ericsson’s private 5G network portfolio. It is unsurprising that the operator has turned to Ericsson given the vendor serves as the network supplier for Swisscom’s entire mobile network. However, it does demonstrate that Ericsson is making decent inroads in the private 5G network space with several operators.
For example, the company has already been working with Vodafone for over a year. Last month, Vodafone Portugal installed a 5G Standalone mobile private network (5G SA MPN) in the oldest cement plant in the world, in partnership with CIMPOR, a leading cement manufacturing company, Ericsson and SAP. It has also done work equipping EDP’s Castelo do Bode dam with 5G.
Ericsson is also the key partner for Telstra which just launched a new private, fully managed 4G/5G service based on the vendor’s private cellular core that customers can control and administer to deliver wireless services. Interestingly with this service, Telstra partitions a dedicated part of its public mobile network and the enterprise doesn’t need to build out the infrastructure. It allows Telstra to effectively offer private, hybrid and public 4G-5G infrastructure solutions to enterprises.
Dual mode
The basis the Swisscom offer is Ericsson’s dual-mode core technology offering both 4G and 5G connectivity simultaneously. This enables a wide range of innovative use cases for both indoor and outdoor environments, while easy integration into business processes, devices and applications ensures greater efficiency in productivity, costs and energy consumption.
With MPN Private, companies use their own Ericsson Private 5G core on the company premises. In combination with an in-house system, this enables a private, localised mobile network that can be operated and managed completely independently of a specific network provider.
This ensures at all times that data-intensive communication is guaranteed independently of mobile robots, digital twins, or a connected workforce, on the factory premises, for example. MPN Private is designed specifically for business customers and comes pre-integrated to ensure rapid service delivery and enable advanced and intelligent operation in any environment, with sensitive data protected on-premises.
“With Ericsson, we have opted for an established and proven network equipment supplier with whom we are jointly advancing the topic of mobile private networks with and for companies in Switzerland so that they can benefit from the advantages of mobile networking,” said Swisscom Business Customers head of connected business solutions Fredy Portmann.
“Together with Swisscom, we are focused on providing commercially viable solutions that are designed for today’s dynamic environments and developed to meet the demands of complex and industrial operating environments,” said Ericsson key account manager Kenneth Ong. “We see strong momentum for private networks driven by use cases that benefit greatly from 5G connectivity. The combination of Swisscom’s high-performance and high-coverage network, as well as Ericsson’s turnkey solutions, will open up new opportunities for customers who recognize the value of private networks.”
With Mobile Private Network, Swisscom said it is expanding its existing communications portfolio in cooperation with Ericsson, adding that, in the coming months, the range of services in the field of MPN is to be further deepened and expanded together.