Ericsson is preparing for the Mobile World Congress 2019 to be held in Barcelona next week, said Head of Networks Campaigns and Sales Enablement at Ericsson Middle East and Africa, Ammar Ammar, in a video conference on Tuesday. The conference included the Ericsson offices of Egypt, Dubai, Morocco, and South Africa. "Stay tuned for some important contracts which will be signed with our partners in Africa and the Middle East," he added, noting that Egypt will has a big share of these contracts. Concerning the 5G, Ammar clarified that it is kicking off now and Ericsson is playing a pivotal role in it. "Feel the beat of easy" would be the slogan of Ericsson during the Mobile World Congress that will last from 25 to 28 February. "We want to make our clients and visitors feel the beat of the evolution of 5G technology," Fida Kibbi, head of marketing and communications at Ericsson Middle East and Africa, said. "The Mobile World Congress is very special this year. The 5G becomes a reality," she added, mentioning that Ericsson aims to announce to their partners not only the launch of the 5G, but also how it will be implemented and how to get benefit from it. "The wide portfolio of Ericsson's 5G Platform is now further strengthened with a broad range of product launches, adding to previous introductions, such as the unique Ericsson Spectrum Sharing, to facilitate an efficient, flexible, and smooth evolution to 5G networks," Kibbi added. The Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson, Fredrik Jejdling, said in a press release issued by the company on Monday that Ericsson has the portfolio in place for service providers to switch on 5G today and they are currently rolling out commercial 5G networks in US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. To ensure smooth evolution to 5G for service providers, Ericsson evolves the Cloud Core portfolio with seven new products supporting both 5G Standalone and Non-Standalone, as well as earlier generations to ensure seamless legacy services' continuity. Furthermore, with early 5G deployments underway in dense urban areas, the next step is to improve 4G performance and build 5G coverage outside of cities. This will continuously require a combination of fiber and microwave-based transport solutions. For this reason, Ericsson is enhancing the capacity of its microwave portfolio and adding a new MINI-LINK 6200 family of 5G-ready Long-Haul solutions supporting up to 10 Gbps capacities. Increasing network complexity is prompting service providers to simplify operations. The evolution of Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration solution introduces automated network slicing comprising creation, testing, and deployment for fast introduction of 5G services. The solution also implements AI-based closed-loop automation for hybrid networks including physical, virtual and container-based functions – in a multi-supplier environment to address service impact and adjust the network in real time to deliver the best end-user experience. Patrick Weibel, head of the 5G programme at Swisscom, said that as his company evolves its network to 5G, a need to simplify operations rises. Adding that Ericsson's dual-mode 5G Cloud Core allows for the flexible evolution of Swisscom 4G Core network to a combined 4G and 5G network while maintaining cost efficiency.
