Russian cellco MTS has struck a deal with Ericsson valued at over 400 million euros ($480.6 million) to upgrade its network as it prepares for 5G and IoT.
Specifically, the scope of the agreement includes 5G-ready radio hardware, Ericsson Radio System and core network with the latest Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution (MSS), as well as User Data Consolidation (UDC), providing consolidation of user data for all network functions.
These solutions will upgrade MTS’ 2G, 3G and 4G networks. In addition, MTS will prepare the network for 5G with Ericsson software for Massive IoT solutions, including NB-IoT and Cat-M1 technologies. This enables a wide range of IoT use-cases including metering and sensor applications.
Ericsson will also deliver the newest software features that will be continuously developed during the next three years.
The deployment starts in Q4 2017.
“In April 2017, in Moscow, our companies demonstrated 5G technology with peak data rates up to 25 Gbps,” said Andrey Ushatsky, MTS Vice President, Chief Technology and IT Officer. “Now we have reached an agreement with Ericsson, which will supply MTS new equipment enabling our network to deploy first solutions based on 5G technologies starting [in] 2020.
The announcement follows the agreement of an extensive 5G MoU signed by MTS and Ericsson in December 2015.
The two companies plan will roll out 5G demo zones during the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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