Ericsson Year in Review 2021: July to December

Join us for part two of our #Ericsson News Review 2021, a year in which #Ericsson played a pioneering leadership role in accelerating #digital transformation worldwide. As the year closes, #Ericsson has 168 unique commercial #5g agreements with communications service providers globally, including 105 live #5g networks in 46 countries.

July: #5g markets warm up in the Americas

5G momentum continued into the second half of the year with a spree of landmark #5g deals and records.

In the US, a multi-year #5g extension agreement with key partner Verizon grabbed headlines and delivered a major boost to the US #digital market through a deal that would see Verizon enhance and expand its #5g offering to US consumers and enterprises.

5G deals with Virgin Media O2 in the UK, and later, Faroese Telecom in the Faroe Islands, ensured that #5g deployment also remained strong in Europe.

Ericsson delivered two #5g firsts in July. The first, in partnership with Telia Sweden, saw the companies trial a new ‘inactive state feature’, enabling up to three times faster access to network resources and reduced battery consumption for smartphone users. For the second, Ericsson partnered with MediaTek to set double the uplink speed record on mmWave using carrier aggregation.

In Latin America, while many #5g spectrum auctions were delayed owing to the pandemic, #Ericsson pressed ahead in laying the groundwork by announcing major #5g initiatives with TIGO in Bolivia, Paraguay and Honduras, and agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere in Brazil.

August: #5g accelerates in East Asia and Oceania

Ericsson racked up the #5g milestones again in August, this time with a flurry of activity across East Asia and Oceania markets.

The month kicked off with the announcement of a #5g first in Australia: the combined operation of #5g mid band and mmWave of a single device to network connection. The demonstration, which utilized New Radio Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) technology, formed part of Ericsson’s ongoing commitment to the Australian market, together with partners Optus and MediaTek.

In Taiwan, #Ericsson supported Asia Pacific Telecom to launch the island’s first #5g non-standalone multi-operator core network. This was followed by the delivery of another Ericsson-powered #5g network in the region, this time in Jakarta with Indosat Ooredoo.

In Saudi Arabia, #Ericsson and stc took another significant step closer to Saudi Vision 2030 with a major deal to deploy #Ericsson #5g Core and switch on #5g standalone across the kingdom. stc was among the first service providers in the world to launch #5g, with commercial services available since June 2019. According the June 2021 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, #5g subscriptions are forecasted to reach 62 million in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region by 2026.

Meanwhile, urban #5g deployments received a boost with the commercial release of three new zero-footprint #Ericsson street solutions, enabling fast ‘plug-and-play’ deployments that that seamlessly blend in with streetlights, buildings and other urban hardscapes.

September: Imagine Possible goes live

September marked a new era for #Ericsson with the announcement of the company's renewed purpose, Imagine Possible. The new purpose was also paired with a renewed company vision of a world where limitless connectivity improves lives, redefines business and pioneers a sustainable future.

5G momentum remained strong in September with new deals announced with DNB in Malaysia and Bhutan Telecom in the Kingdom of Bhutan. While, #5g standalone gained more ground in Europe and Australia owing to new #Ericsson #5g Core agreements with A1 Telekom Austria Group and TPG Telecom respectively.

In Singapore, #Ericsson and Singtel switched on one of the world’s first #5g standalone (SA) networks. On the back of the historic milestone, the partners also signed a memorandum of understanding with several global industry partners with the ambition to develop advanced #5g enterprise solutions in Singapore.

Energy-saving radios were making news in Europe, as Ericsson and Vodafone UK completed the first deployment of Ericsson’s new energy-efficient antenna-integrated #5g radio. The breakthrough trial – which offered a taste of future sustainable networks – saw Vodafone’s daily network energy consumption decrease by an average of 43 percent in direct comparison to previous generations, and as much as 55 percent at off-peak times.

October: Sustainability in the headlines

Ericsson began October by celebrating a historic anniversary with long-term partner Telia. In October 1981, #Ericsson supported Telia in switching on the first-generation (1G) mobile network. Since laying that foundation, a staggering 5.2 billion people worldwide now rely on the breakthroughs achieved in that #Ericsson and Telia innovation.

Just a few weeks after the anniversary, the partners added another page to their joint innovation story by trialing new safety features on a 5G-connected electric self-driving bus. The project, which moved one step closer to full operations with the trial, featured other partners including Urban ICT Arena, Intel, Keolis, and T-Engineering.

5G-based innovation such as this would be fundamental to decarbonizing industries and achieving global climate targets – those were the incisive findings of two key reports published in October. The first, an MIT Technology Review Insights report, found that #5g will be key to generating enterprise efficiency gains and new sustainable operational processes.

The second, an Ericsson-commissioned industry analysis, found evidence that an accelerated roll-out of #5g connectivity across Europe and the UK will have an immediate and catalyzing impact in reducing CO2e emissions.

October also saw #Ericsson mark a significant sustainability milestone, with the mapping of one million schools worldwide, as part of its Giga initiative together with UNICEF and ITU to connect every school to the Internet. There was also a #5g breakthrough India, with the successful completion of India’s first rural #5g trial together with Airtel.

Ericsson closed out the month with a major portfolio addition of a new Critical IoT software product, Time-Critical Communication.

November: #Ericsson announce intention to acquire Vonage

November saw the announcement of a major acquisition intention as Ericsson announced plans to acquire global provider of cloud-based communications, Vonage. The acquisition, which underlines Ericsson’s strategy to expand its presence in wireless enterprise and broaden its global offerings, would spearhead the creation of a global network and communication platform for open innovation. Commenting on the significance of the deal, #Ericsson President and CEO Börje Ekholm, said: “Vonage gives us a platform to help our customers monetize the investments in the network, benefitting developers and businesses.”

Ericsson celebrated ten years of the #Ericsson Mobility Report in November.  The new report featured a look back at key mobile trends over the past decade, uncovering a 300-fold rise in mobile data traffic since #Ericsson signature report was first published.

In the same month, #Ericsson also released two more insights-packed reports: a new #5g Pacesetters report from #Ericsson ConsumerLab which revealed how frontrunning service providers are three times more likely to retain customers and almost twice as likely to grow average revenue per user (ARPU) and mobile services revenues; and the latest instalment in the #Ericsson IndustryLab Future of Enterprise series, predicting widespread transformation of manufacturing and production enterprises by 2030.

As soccer fans worldwide began to return to stadia en-masse, the focus turned to major events in 2022 with Ericsson announcing a network management partnership with Ooredoo Qatar. The agreement would see #Ericsson support state-of-the-art network optimization and event management in eight connected stadiums across six cities, in addition to enabling unforgettable #5g experiences in Qatar’s airports, fan zones and major tourist attractions.

Ericsson also racked up more #5g milestones in November, with the announcement of a new deal to deliver #5g standalone together with SK Telecom in Korea. Meanwhile, in France, Ericsson announced plans to launch the country’s largest industrial #5g network together ArcelorMittal France and Orange Business Services.

December: #Ericsson turns the page on a landmark #5g year

Innovation and sustainability topped the headlines in December as #Ericsson looked to close the year on a high.In Australia, Ericsson teamed up again with Telstra and Qualcomm to set another #5g speed record. During a live demo in Queensland, the partners set an uplink speed record of close to 1Gbps, the highest recorded on a commercial network, using #5g dual connectivity and carrier aggregation.

In the US, #Ericsson shifted autonomous vehicle development into the next gear with the announcement of #Ericsson Routes, a new live test environment in San Francisco developed for autonomous and connected vehicle companies.

Ericsson President and CEO Börje Ekholm, who attended the 2021 Global Forum for Children and Youth in December, announced that #Ericsson has pledged to support one million children and young people with access to #digital learning and skills by 2025, through Ericsson’s Connect to Learn program.

December also saw the announcement of the winners of the annual #Ericsson Innovation Awards, this year picked up by Team BlisCare, of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, India, with their innovative solution to enable equal educational opportunities for visually impaired people all over the world.

As a landmark year for #5g and innovation drew to a close, #Ericsson took an imaginative look ahead to the world of 2030 with the release of its annual Ten Hot Consumer Trends report. The report, which gauges consumer predictions of future technology trends, found that many consumers expect to soon enjoy global experiences, interactions and social connections in a networked physical setting that is close to home.

Ericsson’s technology leadership was showcased to the word in December as part of Sweden Day at the Word Expo. Malaysia’s #digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) #5g network also became the latest to join Ericsson’s leading list of live commercial #5g neworks.