Ericsson and Telefonia extends their agreement of network virtualisation

Ericsson and Telefonica have announced that they will work together to transform the global networks of the operator. The companies are extending their agreement which they signed in 2013. The objective of this association is network transformation incorporating finishing an on-going network virtualization total cost of ownership (TCO) study, and the two companies will also jointly work on an NFV roadmap that will prepare the first migration steps.

Speaking about the partnership, Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO Ericsson, says, “Ericsson is at the forefront of Cloud and NFV technology, and well-placed to assist a global operator such as Telefonica to deliver on its vision and its targets. The cooperation so far has been superb, with both parties gaining valuable experience and insights, which we will now leverage to deliver superior results.”

Impressed and delighted with the partnership with Ericsson, Enrique Blanco, Global CTO Telefonica, said, “The co-operation that we entered into with Ericsson in 2013 has been very fruitful, and we are excited to continue the great work we have done together and begin to implement some of our findings. At Telefonica, we are convinced that network virtualization will help to improve TCO efficiency and improve our service agility.”

Both the companies signed a MoU in 2013 in order to launch a joint R&D program to explore and understand the challenges and opportunities in the space of network virtualisation. The two primary areas of concern are the network functions virtualization (NFV) and service provider software defined networking (SDN). The companies are happy with the execution of the program which began in 2013.