Verizon taps Ericsson for 4G, 5G-ready gear

US mobile giant Verizon Wireless has enlisted Swedish vendor Ericsson to supply it with new 4G equipment, which it hopes will provide a ‘5G-ready’ platform that will allow the cellco to rapidly transition its cell sites in preparation for the 5G era. Billed as an ‘extended partnership’, the contract will see the rollout of Ericsson’s latest baseband and dual band radios in a number of unspecified new markets; this technology will support the high-capacity deployment of CAT-M and NB-IoT networks.