In a widely-anticipated move, the UK's leading communications provider BT has picked Ericsson to provide 5G connectivity in several major cities across the country, including all four capitals London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
The announcement comes just one month after BT sealed a similar deal with Nokia[1], as part of an effort to remove Huawei equipment entirely from the country's 5G networks, following the UK government's ruling that the Chinese company should be barred from participating in the deployment of next-generation mobile connectivity.
Last summer, security concerns prompted the government to require CSPs in the UK to halt the purchase of 5G equipment[2] from Huawei from 2021, and to phase out the use of the Chinese company's technology in 5G networks over the next seven years. The objective is to run 5G networks with no Huawei equipment whatsoever from 2027.
Nokia was therefore selected to provide 5G RAN (Radio Access Network) infrastructure and services at BT radio sites across the UK. But with BT historically operating a dual-vendor policy to avoid total dependence on a single provider, it was expected that another partnership announcement would soon follow.
Ericsson appeared to be the obvious choice, given the Swedish company's well-established relationship with BT. In fact, earlier this year Ericsson was selected by BT[3] to replace Huawei's equipment in core 5G networks, which are more sensitive parts of the infrastructure.
Expanding on the existing partnership between the two companies, the new agreement between BT and Ericsson will see the Swedish company managing around half of BT's 5G traffic once the deployment is completed.
"Having already been selected to partner in 5G Core, we are pleased to strengthen the relationship further with this deal that will deliver high performance and secure 5G to