SmarTone signs pre-5G partnership with Ericsson

Hong Kong’s SmarTone has contracted Ericsson as its sole supplier for core and RAN equipment over the next five years, as part of a partnership aimed at paving the way for 5G deployment.

The companies plan to conduct early trials and pilot deployments of key pre-5G technologies from this quarter.

Ericsson will help SmarTone upgrade and expand its network infrastructure and refarm more spectrum for LTE, and will deploy NFV and SDN technologies to improve network performance and efficiency.

The companies have been working to introduce technologies including LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro to the SmarTone network.

“SmarTone is pleased to extend our strategic partnership with Ericsson to pave the way for 5G in Hong Kong,” SmarTone CTO Stephen Chau said.

“[We] will continue to invest in spectrum and pre-5G technologies within the next few years to provide a superior customer experience and to evolve our network into an advanced, dynamic and cloud-based network architecture.”

He said the deployment will help the company capture future business opportunities from new types of applications including VR and M2M applications such as the IoT.

SmarTone was established in 1992 and publicly listed in 1996. The company provides voice, mobile and fixed broadband services in Hong Kong and Macau.