- Orange is tapping Ericsson to automate 5G slicing
- This is happening, a Dell'Oro analyst tells Fierce, as Orange gets underway with 5G SA in Europe
- The operator said the Ericsson platform will be deployed across Europe, starting from 2025
Orange Group is using Ericsson’s Service Orchestration and Assurance platform to deploy 5G network slicing services across Europe as it expands its 5G standalone (5G SA) footprint on the continent through 2025.
5G network slicing refers to the creation of multiple virtual networks, or slices, on a single 5G cellular infrastructure. This requires a 5G SA network in order to deploy the virtual networks, but many operators are still using a non-standalone (NSA) 5G network with 5G radios based on a 4G LTE core.
As Fierce has argued before, 2025 could prove to be a year where 5G SA rollouts pick up steam, leading to the deployment of long-promised services such as network slicing. Orange’s latest slicing move with Ericsson is a case in point.
Dell’Oro Group’s Mobile Core Research Director Dave Bolan noted that Orange has already started on the 5G SA path. “Orange has already launched 5G SA in Belgium, Spain and France,” he told Fierce.
Orange Romania also very recently launched 5G SA on the Danube Delta – the second largest river delta in Europe – activating the tech to cover the Ivan Patzaichin international canoe marathon.
Orange has said the Ericsson platform will be progressively deployed in Orange affiliates throughout Europe, starting from 2025.
“Ericsson’s new announcement with Orange is to collaborate on Network Slicing using the Ericsson Service Orchestration and Assurance platform,” Bolan said. “The industry is accelerating toward cloud-native network solutions because of the flexibility they provide to make network slicing more dynamic (i.e., on demand).”
Indeed, Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO at Orange, said in a statement: "This partnership with Ericsson is an important step in our journey towards cloud native and demand-centric, autonomous networks. Ericsson’s service orchestration solution will run above our horizontal Orange telco cloud infrastructure and will enable our 5G networks to deliver differentiated experience to our business and retail customers.”
Zooming out, network slicing has already started to take hold elsewhere, with T-Mobile US – the first operator to deploy 5G SA in the world – rolling out a T-Priority first responder slice nationwide in the United States. The major Chinese mobile operators have also moved to 5G SA, deploying multiple slicing services to support enterprise needs.