• Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands President and Country Manager Sean Gowran says digital disruption will come to every industry in 2016
  • Announcement of global alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate cloud transformation in the telecommunications service provider industry
  • New IoT Transformation offering leverages Ericsson’s global services footprint, industry experience and technology leadership to help customers drive IoT business
  • Ericsson affirms strong focus on Cisco partnership; Dynamic Service Manager launched

Sharing highlights from the recently-concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) Philippines and Pacific Islands President and Country Manager Sean Gowran said digital disruption will come to every industry in 2016 and shared major announcements the company has made in 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud. With these announcements, Ericsson solidifies its position as a leading ICT transformation partner for customers across industries.

As Ericsson’s vision of 50 billion connected devices approaches, three fundamental ICT forces – broadband, mobility and cloud – are rapidly reshaping value chains, digitalizing business models and creating possibilities that were previously unimaginable. As an ICT leader, Ericsson is enabling this transformation and simultaneously evolving itself.

Sean Gowran, Ericsson Mobility

Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands President and Country Manager Sean Gowran

Gowran said: “To echo what our President and CEO, Hans Vestberg, said in MWC: along with our industry and our customers, Ericsson is on a transformation journey. Today, 66 percent of our business comes from software and services; just a few years ago the majority was hardware. The majority of our principal competitors are ICT players, rather than telecommunications businesses. Our portfolio is constantly evolving to keep pace with customer demands. Now, with industries and even whole societies being disrupted by mobility, broadband and cloud, we are accelerating our own transformation.

Speaking on Ericsson’s MWC 2016 launches, Gowran identified 5G, IoT and cloud as the hottest topics in the ICT industry:

  • Ericsson has agreements with 20 major operators around the world to work together on 5G – more than any other vendor. 5G radio prototype network field trials will continue with operators in 2016.
  • Ericsson is leading research initiatives for 5G pre-standardization including 5GEx, METIS II and 5G for Europe; the company is committed to continued engagement with industry and society partners.
  • Ericsson is active in aligning industry time plans (3GPP, ITU-R) to assure the commercial launch of 5G in 2020.
  • Ericsson is delivering 5G concepts to improve today’s 4G networks – Ericsson Lean Carrier, Elastic RAN, Massive IoT (NB-IoT and LTE-M).

Commenting on the development of 5G in the Philippines, Gowran said that “the Ericsson Mobility Report as of late 2015 states that we see LTE subscriptions at 40% in the Philippines by year 2018, with smartphone subscription penetration at nearly 70% in the same year. So what we can see is that there will be a sizeable percentage of the mobile population with LTE subscriptions, with devices that will allow them to make full use of LTE/5G. It will be exciting to see what services and applications will be available by 2020 in the country.”

Internet of Things (IoT)

  • Ericsson’s new IoT Transformation offering is a modular set of IoT professional services and software solutions that can be tailored to operators’ needs and IoT ambitions. It leverages Ericsson’s global services footprint, industry experience and technology leadership to help customers drive IoT transformation and business.
  • Ericsson is collaborating with AT&T to bring the operator’s Digital Life solution – which uses IoT technology to transform home security and automation – to service providers outside the US.

On IoT, Gowran mentioned that in the Philippines, “data from our Mobility Report in June 2015 states that a third of the survey respondents in the country were interested in concepts such as wearables, Connected Homes, and Connected Cars. We do see wearables becoming more popular and services such as video home monitoring systems that one can access via mobile phone being offered in the market.”

Cloud

  • Ericsson has announced plans to form a global business, technology and services alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate cloud transformation for telecoms service providers.
  • Ericsson has joined the Open Compute Project (OCP) to drive adoption of data center solutions based on the company’s software-defined infrastructure and Intel® Rack Scale Architecture.
  • Ericsson and Quanta Computer have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate manufacturing of the Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000.

Update on Cisco partnership

One high-profile example is Ericsson’s next-generation strategic partnership with Cisco to create the networks of the future. With a joint and complete end-to-end offering, global market presence, unparalleled market position and strong cultural fit, the partnership was developed to create the networks of the future – and through this, shape the direction of the industry. Since the partnership was announced in November 2015, close to 200 customer engagements have resulted in multiple customer wins.

Ericsson also introduced the Ericsson Dynamic Service Manager, a new product for real-time management of network services via multiple technology and vendor domains. The result of a joint collaboration and encompassing intellectual property from the two companies, the Dynamic Service Manager will initially focus on multi-vendor mobile backhaul, IP core, and enterprise VPNs. It brings together Ericsson’s leadership in Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Cisco’s expertise in IP and optical for the cost-effective management of complex network services. General availability of this product is expected in second half of 2016.

Gowran said Ericsson is strongly positioned to create lasting value in a fast evolving ICT market: “Digital disruption will come to every industry in 2016, including here in the Philippines. As the Networked Society accelerates around us, Ericsson turns great ideas into global realities.”

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