Ericsson, a massive player in networking and cellular technology, has announced their new lineup of RAN Compute (Radio Access Network) processors as well as new high bandwidth routers built around in-house silicon designs fabbed on Intel 4, beating Intel's own Meteor Lake processors to market. These new processors are not something the average person is going to be using in their PCs or home routers, but they are pivotal in the reliability and speed of current and future generation 5G networking as the devices they power handle the ever increasing traffic and bandwidth demands of modern networks. In its press release Ericsson notes that the new RAN Processor 6672 and Radio Processor 6372 offer four times more capacity at twice the efficiency compared to their previous generation. They claim that the power draw of their new processors on Intel 4 is between 30% and 60% lower than the industry benchmarks.

Ericsson signed on as one of Intel's largest customers when Intel announced their "Intel Foundry Services" initiative under the IDM 2.0 strategy to offer chip designers the ability to fab their processors at Intel fabs. The strategy has - at least outwardly - appeared to be a boon to Intel as they've signed on large partnerships ranging from big budget defense contractors to datacenter clientele and even ARM. The new RAN Compute systems from Ericsson packed full of technology built on "Intel 4" even ahead of Intel's own designs exemplifies that Intel is at the very least committed to the strategy, and Ericsson has already announced plans for even more chips on Intel's "18A" process slated for 2025.

Today, Intel announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Ericsson to utilize Intel's 18A process and manufacturing technology for Ericsson's future next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. As part of the agreement, Intel will manufacture custom 5G SoCs (system-on-chip) for Ericsson to create highly differentiated leadership products for future 5G infrastructure. Additionally, the companies will expand their collaboration to optimize 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost for Ericsson's Cloud RAN (radio access network) solutions to help communications service providers increase network capacity and energy efficiency while gaining greater flexibility and scalability.

"As our work together evolves, this is a significant milestone with Ericsson to partner broadly on their next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. This agreement exemplifies our shared vision to innovate and transform network connectivity, and it reinforces the growing customer confidence in our process and manufacturing technology," said Sachin Katti, senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge group at Intel. "We look forward to working together with Ericsson, an industry leader, to build networks that are open, reliable and ready for the future."

Ericsson is boosting its Open RAN and Cloud RAN ecosystem commitment through an agreement with US-based global ICT industry leader AMD. The agreement - intended to strengthen the Open RAN ecosystem and vendor-agnostic Cloud RAN environment - aims to offer communications service providers (CSPs) a combination of high performance and additional flexibility for open architecture offerings.

The Ericsson-AMD collaboration will see additional processing technologies in the Ericsson Cloud RAN offering. The expanded offering aims to enhance the performance of Cloud RAN and secure high-capacity solutions. The collaboration will enable joint exploration of AMD EPYC processors and T2 Telco accelerator for utilization in Cloud RAN solutions, while also investigating future platform generations of these technologies.

For more than a decade, Intel and its partners have been on a mission to virtualize the world's networks, from the core to the RAN (radio access network) and out to the edge, moving them from fixed-function hardware onto programmable, software-defined platforms, making networks more agile while driving down their complexity and cost.

Now operators are looking to cross the next chasm in delivering cloud-native functionality for automating, managing and responding to an increasingly diverse mix of data and services, providing organizations with the intelligence needed at the edge of their operations. Today, Intel announced a range of products and solutions driving this transition and broad industry support from leading operators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent software vendors (ISVs).

Ericsson and Samsung have reached a multi-year agreement on global patent licenses between the two companies, including patents relating to all cellular technologies. The cross-license agreement covers sales of network infrastructure and handsets from January 1, 2021. Furthermore, Ericsson and Samsung have agreed on technology cooperation projects to advance the mobile industry in open standardization and create valuable solutions for consumers and enterprises.

This settlement ends complaints filed by both companies before the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) as well as the ongoing lawsuits in several countries and confirms the value of the strong patent portfolios of both companies. The details of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed. Ericsson's IPR licensing revenues continue to be affected by several factors, mainly expired patent license agreements pending renewal, geopolitical impact on the handset market, technology shift from 4G to 5G, and possible currency effects going forward. In the second quarter 2021, IPR licensing revenues, including the new agreement covering sales from January 1, 2021, are expected to be SEK 2.0 b to 2.5 b.

Christina Petersson, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson says: "We are delighted to sign a mutually beneficial agreement with Samsung. This important deal confirms the value of our patent portfolio and further illustrates Ericsson's commitment to FRAND principles."

Today Fox Business is reporting U.S. and European regulators approved Google Inc's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility on Monday and said they would keep a sharp eye on the web search giant to ensure patents critical to the telecom industry would be licensed at fair prices. The U.S. Justice Department also approved an Apple Inc -led consortium's purchase of a trove of patents from bankrupt Canadian company Nortel Networks.Both the Justice Department and European antitrust authorities said that they would monitor how patents are used to ensure they comply with antitrust rules. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned that patents essential to ensuring communications devices sold by different companies work together are licensed for a reasonable fee.

Ericsson announced today that it is collaborating with Intel to ensure that Ericsson's Mobile Broadband Modules are interoperable with Intel Anti-Theft PC Protection Technology for notebooks to offer a secure and reliable anti-theft solution for mobile broadband users. The collaboration addresses solutions to minimize the negative consequences when notebooks are lost or stolen, and in conjunction independent encryption software when sensitive data is lost while on-the-go and to prevent unwanted data intrusion.