Ericsson, Vodafone Enter 5-yr Networks Partnership

(RTTNews) - Ericsson (ERIC) and Vodafone (VOD, VOD.L) have announced a five-year strategic partnership to modernize Vodafone's network footprint using Ericsson's programmable network solutions across several key markets. Ericsson will be Vodafone's sole RAN vendor in Ireland, Netherlands, and Portugal, as well as a major vendor in Germany, Romania, and Egypt.

Vodafone will deploy Ericsson's state-of-the-art and Open RAN-compatible Massive MIMO radios and RAN Compute solutions, as well as 5G Advanced RAN software capabilities across their networks in these markets. The deal introduces Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform and a number of AI-powered rApps which will be deployed market-by-market.