Ericsson is deploying a container-based, dual-mode, 5G Standalone Core on its own cloud infrastructure.
Virgin Media O2 has chosen Ericsson to supply and deploy its 5G Standalone Core on cloud infrastructure in the UK, “paving the way for Virgin Media O2 to deliver ultra-fast connectivity to consumers and develop advanced enterprise use cases,” according to the press statement.
Converged core
The new agreement is already live and will see Virgin Media O2 bring its 4G, 5G Non-standalone and 5G Standalone services into a single, integrated Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core hosted on Ericsson cloud infrastructure in Virgin Media O2’s data centres.
The solution is incorporating Ericsson network orchestration, automation, and fault and performance management, as well as the Ericsson Traffic Monitoring and Analysis (TMA) solution for real-time troubleshooting and analytics.
For consumers, the progress to 5G SA heralds a new era of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and “other immersive media experiences”.
The operator says it will be able to harness the container-based, microservices architecture to accelerate its enterprise customers’ digital transformations.
The two companies first launched 5G commercial services in 2019 and an extended 5G roll-out and network modernisation began in 2020, including an “innovation cluster” to develop the network migration to 5G Standalone architecture.