Ericsson and Chinese handset maker Oppo have established a joint lab in Shenzhen, China, focusing on 5G innovation. The companies will combine 5G technology expertise to optimize 5G products and network performance to help accelerate the large-scale global deployment of 5G.
Andy Wu, President of OPPO’s Software Engineering, said, “The initiative leverages Ericsson’s advantages in 5G network and infrastructure technologies and its global operator channels with OPPO’s experience and expertise in 5G standards development, technologies, products and application scenarios. We will work together to embrace the challenges and opportunities ahead in the 5G era in order to provide better 5G products and experiences for consumers around the world.”
Luca Orsini, Vice President and Head of Networks Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, said that the partnership i”s of highly strategic importance for both Ericsson and Oppo.”
He added that the lab will contribute to the diversity of the 5G ecosystem and benefit from the agility of both companies to bring new use cases and customer value to the market.”
Ericsson and Oppo signed a global patent license agreement. Since the third quarter of 2018, the two partners have been running joint 5G tests on Oppo’s 5G handset and Ericsson’s 5G infrastructure with local operator partners in Sweden, Germany and China as part of an effort to accelerate the commercial availability of 5G products
The companies also worked together with Swisscom and Qualcomm to enable the Swiss communications service provider to become the first in Europe to launch commercial 5G.
Ericsson claimed that it has more than 70 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique communication service providers, of which 22 are live networks.