The Swedish vendor is the first to announce 5G-Advanced upgrades
This comes on the tail of T-Mobile saying it would have a 5G-Advanced service ready by year's end
Updates include AI-powered radio automation and location services without GPS
Ericsson is launching its first seven 5G-Advanced software updates as operators, such as T-Mobile, promise their first 5G-Advanced services before the end of the year.
The 5G-Advanced network software updates are based on the 3GPP Release 18 5G specification, which was finalized at the end of June this year. Now Ericsson is ready with its first 5G-Advanced network software updates for operators with standalone 5G networks. 5G-Advanced requires a standalone (SA) 5G network. It won’t run over a non-standalone (NSA) 5G radio access network (RAN) that operates over a 4G core, which is still how many operators run their 5G networks.
The company will launch the updates as software subscriptions between now and the first quarter of 2025. The updates will be compatible with Cloud RAN, purpose-built RAN and Open RAN.
The software updates will include:
- Real-time artificial intelligence (AI) powered automation that will enable operators to scale network automation even in complex situations.
- Outdoor positioning will allow operators to introduce location-based services without satellite-based global positioning on their 5G SA networks.
- Mission critical services will let operators support new sectors like railways, defense and public safety that require service continuity with high resiliency.
- RAN-differentiated connectivity will enable the network to meet various service level agreements simultaneously.
- Energy efficiency and management will help scale energy management via automation.
- Premium network performance will offer users more capacity and coverage even in high-data traffic situations.
- Device battery performance will enhance the battery performance of any 5G device on the network.
5G SA & L4S
Ericsson hasn’t yet said which of the updates will be released first. Nonetheless, T-Mobile’s Ulf Ewaldsson, president of technology, previously told Fierce that it will launch a 5G-Advanced Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S) video service on its network before the end of the year.
“It’s a video priority technology that creates a better video experience for different applications,” Ewaldsson said, explaining L4S at Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas in October. During conditions of network congestion, “there is signaling going from the network to the app that tells it to slow down the bit-rates to adapt to the conditions, so you always get optimal rates through for whatever video you’re watching," he said.
“L4S was adopted by 3GPP as a part of Release 18 (5G-Advanced) and the original goal was to support XR (eXtended Reality) workloads,” said principal Avid analyst Roy Chua said in an email. “Both Nokia and Ericsson have demonstrated with various carriers this capability as part of their 5G solutions. So likely T-Mobile will enable those specific capabilities in its network. And since T-Mobile is leading in 5G SA deployment in the US, it likely can roll out L4S support earlier and more broadly across its network than the other carriers.”
Recon Analytics analyst Daryl Schoolar, however, noted that any early 5G-Advanced launches from operators or vendors won’t deliver revenue instantly. “Overall, I still believe we are a few years away from seeing any meaningful revenues coming from 5G-A services. Maybe second half of 2026 we will finally be talking about 5G services other than fixed wireless access” the analyst said.