Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced a new portfolio of as-a-service offerings to help telecommunications companies build and deploy open 5G networks.
The portfolio will accelerate telcos’ path to revenue growth with 5G and enable them to rapidly deploy 5G services to deliver dynamic, personalised, and real-time experiences to employees, customers and citisens.
HPE’s open strategy and commitment to the 5G market aligns with the interests of the Administration and the Federal Communications Commission, who are encouraging US companies to demonstrate leadership in 5G innovation.
HPE’s edge-to-cloud, platform as-a-service strategy is uniquely positioned to help telcos capitalise on the 5G opportunity, by leveraging a cloud-native software stack for 5G core, optimised telco core and edge infrastructure blueprints, and Wi-Fi 6 enabled services. Built on open and interoperable platforms combined with carrier grade infrastructure and modular software components, the portfolio of offerings allows telcos to incorporate more automation, become more agile, and deploy new 5G services faster across the telco core, the telco edge and into the enterprise.
“Openness is essential to the evolutionary nature of 5G and with HPE 5G Core Stack telcos can reduce operational costs, deploy features faster and keep themselves open to multiple networks and technologies while avoiding being locked-in to a single vendor approach,” said Phil Mottram, vice president and general manager of the Communications and Media Solutions business unit at HPE. “HPE has one of the broadest 5G portfolios in the market and is uniquely positioned to help telcos build an open multi-vendor 5G core, optimise the edge with vRAN, and deliver connectivity and new compute services to the enterprise using MEC and Wi-Fi 6.”
5G promises to revolutionise the technology landscape, but the journey to pervasive 5G is in its early stages. To fully realise the benefits and power of 5G, a standalone 5G core needs to be combined with the nascent 5G radio access networks. Previous generation networks have often depended on proprietary vertically integrated systems from a single vendor, but 5G offers the opportunity to move to open, cloud-native platforms that utilise commercial off-the-shelf servers along with modular software components from different vendors, allowing telcos to monetise innovative new 5G services faster.
At the edge of the telco network, legacy network infrastructure in the RAN also uses proprietary network technology that results in high operational costs and limited agility. Furthermore, the higher frequencies of 5G have issues penetrating buildings, therefore, telcos will need to be able to utilise both 5G RAN and Wi-Fi 6 networks in the enterprise in order to provide uninterrupted service to their customers as they enter shopping malls, campuses and office buildings.
HPE’s open 5G portfolio offers the solution to these 5G challenges at the core, at the edge, and in the enterprise and promises to unleash the potential of 5G, enabling a host of new applications across a range of industries, including automotive, education, financial services, government, manufacturing and utilities.
These edge-to-cloud 5G-ready technologies are available on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis via HPE GreenLake to help accelerate the rollout of 5G infrastructure without upfront capital outlays and to help manage the uncertainty of timing and sizing their 5G deployments. With HPE GreenLake, telcos can grow and expand their network as new users come online and pay monthly based on measured utilisation. Through HPE GreenLake, the 5G infrastructure can be operated on behalf of the customer to free up resources to focus on innovation at the network and enterprise edge.
HPE has over 30 years of experience in the telecoms industry, with more than 300 telco customers in 160 countries. In the core, 700m subscribers across 82 carriers depend on HPE Mobile Core software, and HPE was recently recognised by Frost & Sullivan with the 2019 Leadership award for Global 5G Infrastructure Enabling Technology.
