Expanding a long-standing partnership, US cellular giant Verizon and Swedish vendor Ericsson have signed a multi-year agreement worth USD8.3 billion to accelerate the deployment of Verizon’s 5G network via technology solutions including Massive MIMO, Cloud RAN and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). Under the agreement, Verizon will deploy Ericsson’s 5G MIMO C-band, low-band and mmWave solutions to enhance and expand its ‘5G Ultra Wideband’ coverage, network performance and user experience. Niklas Heuveldop, head of Ericsson North America, said: ‘This is a significant strategic partnership for both companies and what we’re most excited about is bringing the benefits of 5G to US consumers, enterprises and the public sector. We’re looking forward to working with Verizon to leverage solutions like Cloud RAN and our Street Macro [mmWave base stations], adding depth and versatility to 5G network rollouts across the US.’ Verizon’s 5G non-standalone (NSA) mobile network was commercially launched in April 2019, reaching coverage of 230 million people in 2,700 cities by end-2020, utilising DSS technology (introduced in October that year).
In a separate announcement, Verizon Business disclosed that its fixed-wireless access (FWA) 5G Business Internet service, powered by the 5G Ultra Wideband network, is now available in parts of 42 US cities, up from a previous total of 24 cities reported in April. Sampath Sowmyanarayan, chief revenue officer at Verizon Business, declared: ‘5G Business Internet customers get more than just a new kind of superfast internet connectivity for today – they also get a 5G digital-transformation platform for tomorrow. Professional installation from Verizon means easy setup and quick application deployments from the start, and, as 5G technology evolves, customers will also have a scalable framework for leveraging technologies like edge computing and IoT.’ TeleGeography notes that Verizon has offered commercial 5G FWA since October 2018, when its consumer division launched its ‘Verizon 5G Home’ service.