Telefonica: O2 Telefónica and Ericsson sign network partnership extension

O2 Telefónica and Ericsson have signed an extension to their existing core network partnership and are now planning to  "launch the next evolutionary stage in the operator’s drive to capture 5G value in the country." The contract extension builds on the telco's recent cloud-native transformation with Ericsson, which has seen the company modernize its packet core network to run on the vendor's cloud infrastructure.

“We always want to offer our customers an outstanding network experience by delivering the full value of cloud-native and 5G Standalone to them," said Mallik Rao, chief technology & information officer (CTIO) of O2 Telefonica. With Ericsson, we have embarked on a cloud-native transformation journey and are now going to develop it further by expanding our portfolio and capabilities towards network slicing, automation, and API access. This allows us to roll out new features faster and without temporary maintenance breaks - an important step towards the network of the future.”

Erricson's dual-mode 5G Core and cloud infrastructure solutions provide mobile connectivity for O2 Telefónica’s 45 million 5G Standalone, 5G non-Standalone, 4G, and 2G subscribers.