Ericsson selected as BT’s 5G RAN provider in major UK cities

Late last month, BT announced the expansion of its partnership with Nokia on 5G RAN, making Nokia BT's largest infrastructure partner. As part of the deal, Nokia will provide equipment and services at BT radio sites across the UK to support the latters' 5G network evolution while also optimizing its 2G and 4G networks.

British operator BT has selected Ericsson as the provider of 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) in major UK cities including London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff, among others.

The new deal builds on BT's selection of Ericsson to provide the company's next-generation cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core earlier this year and it will see the Swedish company managing around 50 percent of BT's 5G traffic once the deployment is completed.

Additionally, Ericsson will modernize BT's existing 2G and 4G RAN infrastructure to enhance customer experience and network performance for the BT and EE customers, the Swedish firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 5G RAN deployment and 2G/4G network modernization will comprise products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio.

"We're the UK leader in 5G and are excited to be working with Ericsson as a key partner to maintain that market leadership. Through this deal, we will continue to drive the best mobile experiences for our customers. The lightning-fast speeds of 5G will help them to develop their businesses, stream a growing choice of content over our network, and stay in touch with colleagues and friends all over the world," said Philip Jansen, CEO, BT.

Late last month, BT announced the expansion of its partnership with Nokia on 5G RAN, making Nokia BT's largest infrastructure partner. As part of the deal, Nokia will provide equipment and services at BT radio sites across the UK to support the latters' 5G network evolution while also optimizing its 2G and 4G networks.

BT's signing of new deals with two of the world's leading equipment vendors, Nokia and Ericsson, will enable the company not only to meet its commitments to the UK government but to continue building its award-winning 5G network across the UK, Howard Watson, BT's Chief Technology and Information Officer, wrote in a blog post.