This new wave of solutions, which will hit the market this April, will be targeted at carriers and their SMB customers.
Billy Neal, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions
https://www.ericsson.com/en has has announced the Cradlepoint X20 5G Router, which provides enterprise-class fixed wireless access (FWA) connectivity for SMBs, temporary sites, and remote workers. The actual products are going to be announced by the carriers responsible in April.
The x20 5G has advanced network slicing and security capabilities, as well as cutting-edge routing, switching, and Wi-Fi 7, ensuring robust, easy-to-maintain connectivity essential for critical business operations.
“This is the first of our new managed services model,” said Billy Neal, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions. “Before we had a x10 generation, but this is an entirely new platform, the first generation of our managed services model. The x10’s market is somewhere between our E100 and E300, when you look at it spec for spec. It is, however an entirely new platform. We see it as being very competitive, even with the E 300 range. But again, it’s a service provider motion,so a little bit different than our kind of regular channel enterprise play.
The new platform is aimed at service providers who are serving the SMB space.
”That is its market — service providers, carriers and wireline providers,” Neal said. “SMB is the market it is directly tailored for. We are aiming at verticals within SMB and our product will enable the market to address that. It is however primarily a carrier play.
“There will also be additional opportunities created by network slicing,” he added. Network slicing, a 5g technology that allows multiple networks to share a physical network infrastructure, is something that Ericcson has been working with for years. There have been some notable announcements by U.S. carriers and and programs rolling out.”.
“We are already seeing rollouts around public safety – but it could be anything depending how a specific carrier differentiates services,” Neal added. “In the past, fixed wireless has been driven by consumer grade products, but they don’t have the higher level of features and functionality that SMBs need,” he said. So we are working to build tailored products for those SMB markets that are the right fit and a scalable solution.”
IDC says that 75 per cent of enterprises will have assigned all deployment responsibility, operational control, and technology innovation for at least one major network domain to a trusted management partner.
“This will be purely around managed services, and it is already something being rolled out to some customers,” Neal said. IDC says managed services is key for business going forward. Managed services is more about lessening the IT burden on end customers. Because it is a service provider motion, it is a little bit different than our kind of regular channel enterprise play. IDC also has provided other great data points, including stressing that managed services is a key to business, and that there is a strong market for this.
Neal said that while this is not a traditional channel play, partners will still play a significant role.
“Channel partners are important to it, particularly using an OPEX model with services included at a traditional entry price,” he stated. “This is the channel place that we have played in traditionally. April is the GA time line for this and while exactly what we carriers will be doing remains secretive,that is when we will start seeing SPs come out with products.
The Ericsson Cradlepoint X20 5G Router will be available in April 2025.
