TOKYO – Ericsson is doubling down in Japan, striking a new multi-year agreement with SoftBank Group to upgrade the carrier’s core network as the race toward standalone 5G picks up pace.
The partnership isn’t flashy, but it matters. At its core, it’s about replacing older infrastructure with Ericsson’s cloud-based systems—technology that should make SoftBank’s network more flexible, easier to scale and, ultimately, better suited for the kind of services 5G promises but hasn’t fully delivered yet.
There’s no price tag attached to the deal. That’s not unusual. What’s clearer is the direction: telecom operators are moving, gradually but decisively, toward standalone 5G, cutting the cord with 4G-era systems that still underpin much of today’s networks.
For SoftBank, this is part of a broader build-out rather than a sudden shift. The group has been investing steadily in next-generation infrastructure, even as the business environment remains unpredictable.
That uncertainty hasn’t stopped its momentum. The company recently reported a sharp jump in earnings, with net profit climbing to around ¥3.17 trillion ($20.7 billion) over the nine months to December. A chunk of that came from investment gains, including its exposure to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Revenue edged up nearly 8% over the same period to ¥5.72 trillion—solid, if not spectacular growth for a group balancing telecom operations with a sprawling investment portfolio.
Ericsson, meanwhile, continues to position itself as a key partner for operators navigating this transition. Its dual-mode systems are designed to bridge old and new networks, a practical approach in an industry where change rarely happens overnight.
Taken together, the deal says less about disruption—and more about evolution. The shift to 5G is happening, just not all at once.
#Ericsson #SoftBank #5G #Telecom #AI #Technology #Cloud #DigitalTransformation #OpenAI #ChatGPT
