Ericsson Regional Connect | Issue 3 – Winter/Spring 2021

Issue 3 | Winter/Spring 2021

Featured articles

Accelerating US innovation New opportunities for 5G revenue in the enterprise market 10 hot consumer trends for 2030

2

Table of contents

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

03

Welcome to Regional Connect

Connect 04

Ericsson hosts first-ever Regional Connect Virtual Innovation Day

06

CCA 2020 went virtual, focused on virtualization and 5G in a mobile world

07

Meet the expert: Surya Bommakanti

08

Enabling a broadband future for electric utilities

10

Rising to the challenge of connecting rural Midwestern communities with high-quality broadband internet

Share 12

Maximizing uplink performance

14

New opportunities for 5G revenue in the enterprise market

16

Accelerating US innovation

18

10 hot consumer trends for 2030

20

Ask the expert

Serve 24

Ericsson partners with UNICEF to map school connectivity

25

Stories of impact from the Regional Connect community

26

Why Ericsson?

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

Welcome to the winter 2021 issue of Ericsson “Regional Connect Magazine.”

Usually, the beginning of a new decade brings about a sense of optimism and hope. Yet in 2020, we saw the world almost come to a standstill, confronting a public health crisis and the ensuing economic turmoil.

When we launched Ericsson Regional Connect almost one year ago, we could not have anticipated that a pandemic, social unrest and natural disasters would accompany our inaugural year. It has truly been an unprecedented period, and I am happy to report that our industry played a critical role in connecting people to medicine, education and most importantly, each other—especially in rural communities.

We envisioned Ericsson Regional Connect to be a catalyst for connecting our customers to a robust ecosystem of industry partners and to each other, for sharing ideas and innovations, and ultimately, for serving through exceptional service and community involvement.

As we have navigated the first year of the new decade, I am hopeful and optimistic that connectivity will remain key to defining what comes next. Thank you for trusting us as your partner during such critical times; it is truly a privilege that my colleagues and I do not take for granted.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Ericsson Regional Connect, where you will find the following articles:

Do you have a success story you’d like to share? Has your enterprise had an impact in your community?

Contact your Ericsson account representative to be featured in the next issue of “Regional Connect Magazine.”

Welcome to Regional Connect A community of thinkers, doers, engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs united under the mission of providing world-class technologies and service to everyone, everywhere.

Discover the power of community – watch the video.

Connect

Share

Serve

We introduce you to our partners, Southern Linc and Watch Communications.

You’ll also meet Surya Bommakanti, Chief Information Officer for Regional Carriers Customer Unit, and hear his passion for innovation.

We share the top 10 consumer trends for 2030 and how our recent acquisition of Cradlepoint will benefit our customers and partners.

We spotlight UScellular’s commitment to STEM education initiatives through its partnership with JASON Learning, and we feature our partnership with UNICEF to map school connectivity.

I wish you happiness, health and prosperity in 2021 and look forward to seeing you very soon.

Robert Johnson Executive Vice President, Customer Unit Regional Carriers, Ericsson

3

4

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

Connect

Ericsson hosts first-ever Regional Connect Virtual Innovation Day Live on November 17, 2020 and now available on-demand

This November, Ericsson welcomed more than 100 regional carrier customers to the first-ever Regional Connect Virtual Innovation Day. This was an immersive experience with insightful thought leadership, interactive demonstrations and presentations on the latest innovations in 5G. We appreciated the opportunity to virtually connect, serve and share insights as we continue to innovate and help customers meet the demands of the future. Although we could not be together with you in person this year as we wished, there is a bright spot to this virtual format: If you missed the event in November or want to revisit event highlights, you can still attend on demand.

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

Immersive experiences are available in all areas of the event, including the innovation zone, the theater, the customer showcase and the 5G smart factory. Here is what you can expect in each area.

Innovation zone Attendees can visit the innovation zone to explore the 5G innovations that are empowering new services and use cases for business, people and society. Visit this area to engage with examples of our private network in various industries, interact with our latest radio solutions and explore how 5G is changing the lives of consumers.

Issue 3

Theater Here, expert leaders share our latest thinking and innovations on cutting-edge topics in the 5G realm. Sessions are available in general, business and technology tracks.

5G smart factory Explore real-world examples of Industry 4.0 with a tour of our 5G-enabled smart factory in Lewisville, Texas. This ultra-modern factory builds national security into the network by securing a trusted supply chain and enabling hardware development, testing, implementation and operations in the U.S.

Customer showcase Learn from Ericsson experts and delve into key technologies and use cases curated for Innovation Day attendees. Choose from topics including fixed wireless access 4G + 5G, private networks on the edge, Ericsson Cloud RAN and Cradlepoint capabilities.

To attend: Sign up for the on-demand experience here.

5

6

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

CCA 2020 went virtual, focused on virtualization and 5G in a mobile world CCA Annual Convention: CCA 2020 October 21, 2020 | Virtual

Ericsson had a strong presence at the fall 2020 Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) Annual Convention, North America’s only event focused exclusively on smart strategies, technology innovations and business opportunities for carriers in an ever-more mobile world. We served as a Pinnacle sponsor, the highest level of event sponsorship.

The convention went virtual this year, bringing together more than 1,000 policymakers and technology innovators online to discuss policy issues, technology innovation and business strategies important to competitive carriers. Virtualization, 5G and COVID-19 pandemic-related topics were top of mind during the one-day event.

Paul Challoner, Ericsson’s Vice President of Network Product Solutions, keynoted the morning session on Open RAN (O-RAN) opportunities and challenges. The progression of networks toward virtualization and increased openness is an area of innovation where we are deeply committed and engaged. Challoner shared key insights on the opportunities and challenges O-RAN presents and provided a look at how we are is actively contributing to O-RAN specifications to make it a viable complement to 3GPP in the future.

Additionally, Ericsson thought leaders engaged in five panel discussions in the educational programming seminars series across multiple tracks: • In the policy track, Vikas Sharma, Head of Operations for Regional Carriers Customer Unit, spoke to lessons learned as competitive carriers have risen to meet the challenges of maintaining and even expanding services in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• In two sessions in the business development track, Peter Linder, Head of 5G Marketing, North America, addressed the potential that 5G verticals hold for rural America, while Dr. Brenda Connor, Director of IoT Platform Application for Ericsson, discussed dynamics of public/private partnerships and the productivity of wireless service objectives in the smart city ecosystem.

• In a technical track session, Surya Bommakanti, Vice President/ Chief Information Officer of Regional Carriers Customer Unit, addressed the topic of virtualization technologies for carriers. In another session, Bill Chotiner, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Regional Carriers Customer Unit, discussed the technical requirements to bring 5G capabilities to rural America.

Watch Paul Challoner’s CCA keynote on Ericsson’s engagement in addressing the challenges and opportunities of open networks.

Upcoming event CCA Mobile Carriers Show Virtual event March 30-31, 2021

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

7

Meet the expert Ericsson’s “Regional Connect Magazine” recently visited with Surya Bommakanti, Chief Information Officer for the Regional Carriers Customer Unit, to learn about his journey to becoming a technology expert and why he’s passionate about our industry.

His enthusiasm for the innovations and fresh customer experiences already being fueled by 5G is contagious, and his love for family and sports keeps him in the game.

Q:

Why do you enjoy working with Ericsson’s regional carrier customers?

A: With the regional carrier space, it’s the variety that’s so much fun. There’s a new challenge every day, and our customers are bringing a wide variety of use cases to market, allowing our team to work with the entire Ericsson portfolio. We are privileged to have this unique opportunity and that’s really what keeps it exciting.

The most important thing we can do for regional carriers right now is to bring the best of Ericsson, connecting them with both local talent and our R&D organizations. I’ve worked with those organizations very closely and feel wellpositioned to make those connections. We need to get involved early, through productization into the network and then all the way through to the next upgrade cycle.

Q: What are the greatest opportunities with 5G for regional carriers?

A: We have massive change going on with 5G, of course, and it’s not just about radio network technology. We’ve embarked on network virtualization, and our industry fundamentally rethought the network architecture. When you consider the number of different users and use cases that can be enabled on the 5G platform, it’s going to be really interesting to see what innovations our industry comes up with.

And the opportunity with 5G is much more than a technology. It’s a platform on which to build and deliver fresh customer experiences. We could be building large bandwidth use cases for everything from fixed wireless access to superresponsive networks for low latency. The needs in regional and rural America are very important right now, from remote work to education, safety and healthcare. We’ve got an incredible opportunity to innovate together.

To hear Surya tell his story, watch this video.

8

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Enabling a broadband future for electric utilities Southern Company has built the future of energy for more than a century.

Today, Southern Linc, a Southern Company subsidiary, provides LTE and voice communication services for all who rely on Southern Company’s electric utilities so they can carry out their duties under even the most challenging conditions.

We spoke with Alan McIntyre, Director of Engineering at Southern Linc, about the importance of providing broadband coverage in their service territory.

Q: Tell us about your company and the communities you serve.

A: Our new LTE network evolved from a decades-old communications challenge—how to meet the mobile needs of the company’s electric utilities across a large territory. The answer was a plan to build a private wireless network using Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) technology from Motorola. Southern Linc launched as a new network in 1996. Today, our LTE network takes our company and the communities we serve toward a broadband future.

Our service territory is determined by our power company service territories. We own spectrum and service in southeast Mississippi, the Florida panhandle, Alabama

and Georgia. We have roaming agreements with multiple carriers outside our service territory to enable nationwide data and voice services for our customers.

We are dedicated to serving our power companies, public safety and first responders, as well as businesses in our service territory that value a highly reliable, highly secure wireless network. Likewise, our customers are dedicated to serving their communities, especially when storms arise. Our customers include state agencies, municipal utilities, sheriff and police departments, ambulance services and our own power companies.

We work to be there “Before the Call”—before the storm, the emergency or the mission-critical situation. We

like to think that our CriticalLinc™ LTE network is like that, too: Resilient and reliable under the most difficult circumstances so our customers can carry out what they’re called to do.

Q: What are your company’s core values? How do these help you serve your community?

A: For us, how we do our work is just as important as what we do. We follow an uncompromising set of values that guide our behavior and ensure that we put the needs of those we serve at the center of all that we do. These are: • Safety first: The safety of our employees and customers is paramount. We perform and maintain every job, every day, safely.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

9

“LTE is an erector set. It gives us a platform to work from as we look to meet the telecom needs of the future.”

• Unquestionable trust: Honesty, respect, fairness and integrity drive our behavior. We keep our promises, and ethical behavior is our standard.

• Superior performance: We’re dedicated to superior performance throughout our business. We will continue our strong focus on innovative solutions, improving how we run our business and our commitment to environmental stewardship.

• Total commitment: We’re committed to the success of our employees, customers, shareholders and communities.

We fully embrace, respect and value our differences and diversity.

Our approach to storm response is one of the most obvious examples of how we put our core values into action in service to our communities. In a storm, we move our partners, people, equipment and mobile assets to a staging area out of harm’s way. We have a rigorous protocol to determine when it is safe to move our people in to respond, and we only move them in once it’s determined that we’re fully in compliance with all of those conditions. As we restore power, communication is all-critical to ensure that everyone remains safe. The public utilities we support tell us that they appreciate the total commitment that all of our dedicated employees put into our storm response—from field crews to people working in the distribution center—to ensure that we get out the equipment we need.

Q: Tell us about something you’ve worked on with Ericsson that has made an impact. What do you value about your partnership with Ericsson?

A: Based on a tremendous amount of work, in 2018, Southern Company became the first utility in the United States to deploy a private LTE network.

We worked with Ericsson to develop it. This network is Southern Linc’s CriticalLinc™ LTE network, which we built to enable a broadband future for our company and our customers.

LTE is an erector set. It gives us a platform to work from as we look to meet the telecom needs of the future. Ericsson helped us embrace this new technology and understand the nuances of an LTE environment.

They’ve helped us garner learnings, insights and strategic vision into where we’re heading, from future uses of LTE to what 5G might look like in a utility environment.

Q: When you think about the future of 5G, what excites you, and what are you nervous about?

A: As far as what is exciting, given our utility cases and applications, the lower latency benefits of 5G are certainly of interest. As the electric grid evolves, supporting those connectivity needs with the higher bandwidth and lower latency that 5G offers will become more important. Of course, for utilities looking at deploying 5G, the availability of spectrum is an almostuniversal concern.

Q: What is something that you’d like to tell people about Southern Linc that they probably don’t know?

A: We have more than 34,000 wireless modems on our LTE network right now that help control the Southeastern electric grid. We anticipated that there would be demand to run fixed data devices on the network, but we didn’t anticipate how great it would be within the first phase of the project. When Ericsson worked with Southern Company to build what has been called the first phase of our LTE network, which we’re completing now, we planned that it would be a win if we had 15,000 fixed data devices actively on the network in this phase. We more than doubled that.

This year, despite COVID-19 setbacks, the LTE network engineering team has worked diligently to construct 160 new cellular sites—110 of which have already launched. We expect that the complete LTE network build will conclude by the middle of 2021 and will include 1,320 cellular sites—well above the 855 sites that our legacy iDEN network had—resulting in greatly improved coverage.

10

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Rising to the challenge of connecting rural Midwestern communities with highquality broadband internet To help our regional partners “connect” with each other, we sat down with Chris Daniels, President and CEO of Watch Communications, about their core values and their passion for overcoming connectivity challenges in rural communities.

Despite the many quality-of-life advantages that residents of rural communities enjoy, broadband internet access can be a challenge. The team members of Watch Communications live and work in the Midwestern communities they serve, providing a network that uses the most recent technologies, always-on connections and highspeed connectivity.

Q: Tell us about the origins of Watch Communications.

A: Our origins go back to 1902, when the Benton Ridge Telephone Company started operations. Watch Communications was formed in 1992, as a subsidiary of Benton Ridge, to provide cable TV service. By 1998, we began expanding to offer internet service. Our roots are in Lima, Ohio, but since 1998, we have expanded throughout central Ohio, and parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

From the very beginning, Benton Ridge—and now Watch Communications—focused on delivering high-quality services to rural communities. We are community driven and understand the challenges that rural communities face because we live in the communities we serve.

Q: What is something we should know about your company that most people probably don’t know?

A: Our formal name is actually W.A.T.C.H. TV Company. This is an acronym that stands for “Wireless Approach to Cabled Homes,” which describes our early days as a company. Our initial business was providing cable TV over 2.5GHz wireless spectrum. This later evolved to include internet services using data-over-cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS). Then in 2010, we began to transition from this platform. We now leverage this spectrum to deliver broadband services to subscribers in parts of Ohio.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

11

“Everyone is looking at how to balance the needs of expanding broadband internet into rural America and doing it in a way that results in reliable, highspeed connections. We’re excited to be a leading company in this venture.”

Q: What are Watch Communications’ core values?

Q: What about 5G excites you? Do you have any concerns about 5G?

A: We strive to provide our customers with high-quality broadband and related services. Broadband is rapidly becoming the default pipeline for multiple services, including voice and entertainment. We also strive to provide excellent customer service when issues do arise. One certainty with technology is that issues will occur. Moreover, our reliance on broadband for work, our children’s education and entertainment due to COVID has raised the bar in consumer expectations along with their frustration levels when problems happen. Our mission is to deliver an excellent customer experience based on high-quality and reliable broadband, efficient and friendly customer service and excellent technical support.

A: Rural Americans’ demand for bandwidth has risen tremendously in the last decade, primarily driven by streaming entertainment services. Now, for many families, the pandemic and the shift of work and school activities to the home have substantially amplified this demand. 5G gives us the ability to meet our customers’ increased capacity needs without deploying fiber ubiquitously throughout rural America.

Furthermore, 5G technologies can be deployed at a cost that supports our business case while enabling us to offer reasonable prices to our customers.

Q: What is something you’ve worked on with Ericsson that has made you proud?

A: Our relationship with Ericsson is new, so we have not yet worked together on an initiative outside of our normal course of business. However, we’re excited about the effort we’re now pursuing together that will enable Watch Communications to deliver high-quality broadband to enable eLearning in rural communities in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

Our concerns relate to the availability of equipment in Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) and other mid-band spectrum that is more appropriate for rural America than the millimeter wave (mmW) band of spectrum.

Q: Tell us about the communities that Watch Communications serves.

A: Although rural America is more diverse than many would expect, agriculture and various agri-businesses are at our core. We have world-class universities and career education schools as well top research and healthcare institutes. People in our communities are attracted to the lower cost of living here compared to urban or even

suburban areas, combined with our strong sense of community. We know our neighbors by name, we know their families, and we keep an eye out for each other.

Q: What do you enjoy about serving your communities?

A: For all the many wonderful things about rural communities, we have our challenges, too. Delivering internet is one of them. Line of sight, difficult terrain, changing conditions involving the rate of tree growth … those are not problems you encounter delivering internet services in urban areas. But closing the digital divide is critical to ensuring that our children have the same opportunities as their peers do in markets where it’s easier to connect.

It’s more than ensuring a highquality education for our kids, though. The world is more connected, especially now with a rapid transition to online life because of the pandemic.

Everyone is looking at how to balance the needs of expanding broadband internet into rural America and doing it in a way that results in reliable, highspeed connections. We’re excited to be a leading company in this venture.

12

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Share

Maximizing uplink performance

Remember when quickly downloading a movie on your phone was king? Since users craved high data speeds to download their favorite videos, “downlink”—the signal from a cell tower to the user’s cellular device—was where most of the mobile network traffic bandwidth demand occurred.

How times have changed. Even before COVID-19, there was a significant increase in applications such as social media, multiplayer gaming and augmented reality/virtual reality. With the new normal and the concurrent explosion of video conferencing, uplink traffic increased by up to 40 percent, putting a significant strain on the uplink. Ericsson realized that an uplink solution was needed to keep teams collaborating, businesses communicating, gamers competing and families connecting.

Maximizing uplink performance To meet this goal, we set out to develop a solution that could maximize uplink performance. The result of those efforts is Uplink

Booster, a software solution that is an integral part of our mid-band (below 6GHz TDD) massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antenna integrated radios (AIR).

The main challenge in improving the uplink is that radio channel conditions of the user device are constantly changing due to fluctuating interference levels. When you have fast-moving users who consume bursty web-based data applications, you end up facing a highly complex situation. Therefore, instantaneous channel estimation and suppressing interference from non-desired users are key.

Seeking the optimal trade-off between performance and implementation cost, we determined that the uplink beamforming

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

functionality should be moved from the base station baseband unit to the radio, where the most accurate information is available. That way, the signaling load on the interface to the RAN Compute baseband could be minimized without compromising the beamforming quality. To accomplish this, the Ericsson massive MIMO mid-band AIR was built on Ericsson ManyCore Architecture (EMCA) and used evolved Common Packet Radio Interface (eCPRI ) toward the RAN Compute baseband.

EMCA is a unified architecture used for our entire RAN portfolio. It uses custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) silicon, containing hundreds of specialized digital signal processors and accelerators. The EMCA is integrated in the radio, providing the ability to process huge amounts of data, which improves uplink performance significantly. With this architecture, we can perform channel estimation and suppression of the interference instantaneously for every antenna. This removes the need to take samples of the data to send to the RAN Compute baseband and addresses the challenge posed by changing channel conditions.

Furthermore, since the EMCA processes the data in the radio, the eCPRi interface can be used to send the user data to the RAN Compute baseband. The data sent scales with the user traffic and allows for a 90 percent reduction of bandwidth on the interface compared to the industrystandard architecture implementation.

Issue 3

Figure 1. Key components of Uplink Booster

Full interference rejection combining in the uplink Custom silicon system on a chip

eCPRI – 90% reduction of data RAN Compute baseband

Figure 2. Industry-standard receiver coverage

Why Uplink Booster matters in your network Using Uplink Booster in your network can lead to: • Extended coverage—up to double the coverage area compared to industry- standard implementations • Improved user throughput—up to 10x increase in the uplink throughput at the cell edge and up to 2x increase throughout the coverage area • Higher spectral efficiency—up to 3x the spectral efficiency compared to industrystandard implementations Figures 2 and 3 show how the coverage is extended with Uplink Booster compared to the industrystandard implementation.

We built our innovative Uplink Booster solution within our massive MIMO mid-band radios, which not only extends uplink coverage, but also improves uplink throughput and achieves higher spectral efficiency.

So users never have to worry about uplink performance: Their smartphones will simply work.

Thanks to the Uplink Booster solution, a high-quality uplink enables better downlink coverage as well as an increase in overall mid-band coverage—and a whole kaleidoscope of bright new business opportunities.

Learn more about expanding coverage with Uplink Booster here.

Figure 3. Ericsson Uplink Booster coverage

13

14

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

New opportunities for 5G revenue in the enterprise market Ericsson acquires Cradlepoint, market leader for Wireless WAN Edge 4G and 5G edge solutions

Cradlepoint, the US-based market leader in Wireless WAN (WWAN) Edge 4G and 5G solutions for the enterprise market, has joined the Ericsson family. This combination will enable regional carriers to support 5G-enabled services for enterprise, unlocking new revenue streams and accelerating return on 5G investments.

The growth trajectory of the WWAN serviceable market continues to gain momentum. Key growth drivers include the uptake of 5G, massive growth and proliferation of IoT use cases, expansion of cloud applications, and increased enterprise wireless connectivity penetration.

25-30% Growth in the WWAN serviceable market projected between 2020-2024 With access to the combined strengths of Ericsson and Cradlepoint in 5G, IoT and WWAN Edge solutions, regional carriers will now have new ways to harness the growth of this burgeoning market. Åsa Tamsons, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Technologies & New Businesses at Ericsson, said, “With Cradlepoint’s market-leading solutions, we are strengthening our enterprise offering and taking an important step

to lead the next wave of enterprise network transformation. Together, we will power solutions to the customer edge that help improve productivity and deliver realtime services, enabling us to drive faster adoption of 5G in enterprise segments.

This is good news for our customers as it helps them accelerate returns on 5G investments.”

What does Cradlepoint do?

Cradlepoint’s subscription-based WWAN Edge solutions combine cloud, softwaredefined networking, multi-layer security and 4G and 5G cellular technologies to connect people, places and things, anywhere.

Cradlepoint provides services that extend the reach of the enterprise by making it simple to connect remote devices back into the network. The company offers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of 4G and 5G Wireless Edge Solutions for fixed and temporary site networks, mobile and in-vehicle networks, and IoT and connected device networks.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

15

Cradlepoint by the numbers

Market leader

>1 mn SaaS subscriptions

Strong go-tomarket model

1,500 channel partners

Operating as a standalone subsidiary within Ericsson, Cradlepoint will continue to build on the current market momentum as 5G accelerates digital transformation and increases the need for advanced connectivity services for enterprises.

New enterprise business opportunities for carriers Regional carriers now have a wide range of scenarios in which to leverage Cradlepoint to extend reach into businesses as they pursue new revenue streams. “Carriers want a simple connectivity solution that just works,” said Bill Chotiner, VP and CTO of Regional Carriers Customer Unit at Ericsson. “Cradlepoint is that solution. It’s an excellent tool for regional carriers who want to move further into the business space and pursue opportunities they couldn’t access before.”

Here are a few of the new options that Cradlepoint brings into play for our customers.

Primary connectivity Small businesses such as banks, restaurants, retail, and so on can use Cradlepoint to provide a secure, nonstop WAN Edge that connects everything, wherever they transact with customers.

Public safety institutions such as law enforcement and hospitals can do the same wherever they serve people.

Day-one connectivity New businesses under construction need reliable network access to ensure that they’re ready for business on opening day.

Technology leadership

Large customer base

They need this access during the days or weeks that they wait for installation of permanent wired lines. Cradlepoint makes it possible for these businesses to use LTE as the primary WAN to provide immediate, reliable connectivity.

Pop-up connectivity Organizers of events or pop-up businesses at locations where permanent wired lines aren’t established need temporary connectivity that is secure, easy to deploy, and easy to monitor and manager remotely.

In these scenarios, Cradlepoint unlocks LTE and 5G connectivity to provide an instant network in any location.

Mobile connectivity Connect back to the network from devices within cars, public transportation, ambulances, military transport, etc. as they repeatedly change locations. Use Cradlepoint to securely connect back to the network through LTE or 5G. Connectivity for remote workers Helping employees work from home is more important than ever. Many companies don’t want their employees to rely on the wired consumer router in the home for enterprise network access. This is especially important when other family members also connect to the wired router with competing bandwidth-heavy tasks. Cradlepoint services and wireless edge routers provide centralized control of WAN and LAN connectivity, cybersecurity measures and application management from the enterprise network to help companies efficiently manage remote worker access from anywhere.

#1 in 5G WWAN technology

>20,000 customers worldwide

Failover connectivity In some scenarios (such as businesses running transactions during peak promotion events where they could lose their transactions), even a brief lapse in connectivity can be disastrous. Cradlepoint services make it possible to provide the assurance of unwavering backup connectivity through LTE and 5G in these mission-critical scenarios.

Remotely reset connectivity When devices in difficult-to-reach locations such as rural areas lose connectivity, being able to reset their connectivity without the need to travel to them in person can save time and resources. Cradlepoint provides the ability to manage and reset these devices remotely.

IoT connectivity Cradlepoint hardware and software make it possible to connect multiple smart devices in an area (for example, all the cash registers and vending machines in a corporate cafeteria) back into a central network, making connectivity seamless from the perspective of the end user.

We are excited to welcome Cradlepoint to the Ericsson family. Together, we look forward to helping our customers pursue new enterprise business opportunities.

Learn more about how you can capitalize on the new range of possibilities that 5G is opening for businesses.

16

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

Accelerating US innovation Investing in the US to keep Americans connected

Ericsson has been connecting the United States for nearly 120 years. As a trusted partner to all the major service providers and many regional carriers across the country, we are committed to supporting the market through our game-changing technology and services. The US is our largest market, and we have been strengthening our investments to be even closer to our customers and meet their accelerated 5G deployment plans. We have five live 5G networks in the US, and globally we power 77 commercial 5G live networks on five continents.1

1

7,700

1,900

5

US employees

US field service employees

training Centers of Excellence

30+

4

800+

locations

US R&D locations

tower climbers to accelerate network builds

$100M

1st

5G smart factory investment in Lewisville, TX

to launch 5G with all Tier-1 service providers in the US

50,000

7

career enhancement opportunities in the next five years in the US

5G Core contracts in the US

As of 1/1/2021

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

17

Key investments in the US We have made a $100M investment in our smart factory located in Lewisville, TX. This 300,000 squarefoot, state-of-the-art factory is assembling 5G radio base stations, putting our 5G equipment supply chain close to our US customers.

Our Austin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design and R&D center helps maintain our leadership position in 5G technology. ASICs and software developed in Austin will be instrumental in the global 5G mobile telecommunications infrastructure.

Ericsson D-Fifteen is our state-of-the-art innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley. It brings multiple core capabilities together under one roof, combining the company’s collaborative spirit with leading technologies to provide a highpowered platform for building impactful and unique solutions, driven by co-creation and innovative partnerships.

Our five Centers of Excellence in the US have trained and certified 2,500 crew members since 2015. We are partnering with industry associations, US service providers and the Department of Labor to build a resource funnel for new tower workers—to accelerate US 5G deployment.

Keeping America running during COVID-19 As the heroes on the frontlines are working tirelessly to keep people healthy, safe and fed, we are honored to serve them by keeping society connected. We are using artificial intelligence to provide critical information so our healthcare workers can best care for people. And we’re helping teachers find new ways to engage students during the pandemic.

See us in action in healthcare.

See us in action in education.

18

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

10 hot consumer trends for 2030 The 10 roles consumers expect connected intelligent machines to have in everyday life by 2030.

01. Body bots

02. Guardian angels

03. Community bots

Get a power-up – 76 percent of consumers predict there will be intelligent posture-supporting suits.

Three-quarters believe that privacy guardians will help fool surveillance cameras and block electronic snooping.

Seventy-eight percent believe electronic watchdog services will alert neighborhood allies to any trespassers.

07. Connectivity gofers

08. Baddie bots

09. Media creators

Smart signal locators will be able to guide you to optimal connectivity spots, say 83 percent of consumers.

A baddie bot that can be trained to carry out burglaries or attack other people is wanted by 37 percent of AR/VR users.

Machines will curate content. Sixty-two percent think game consoles will make original games based on their gameplay.

53min Optimal posture

=

+

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

19

In each issue of Ericsson “Regional Connect Magazine,” we promise to “share” important information with our regional carrier partners. This new report on consumer trends provides a glimpse into the future of connectivity and intelligent devices.

04. Sustainability bots

05. Home officers

06. Explainers

Future weather will be extreme – 82 percent believe devices will share data and warn about local rain torrents or heat blasts.

WFH uninterrupted – 79 percent say smart speakers will project noise-canceling walls around the home office space.

More than 8 in 10 predict automated financial management systems that explain how your investments are handled.

Flood risk: Medium

80%

55%

10. Bossy bots Around 7 in 10 believe that social network AIs will understand your personality and build up a circle of friends that is good for your mental and physical wellbeing.

Our vision is that advances in AI and cellular communications technology will enable connected intelligent machines to securely communicate across the networks of tomorrow.

Learn more at ericsson.com/consumerlab

20

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

21

Ask the experts In this “Ask the experts” discussion, Bill Chotiner, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the Regional Carriers Customer Unit, and Surya Bommakanti, Chief Information Officer for the Regional Carriers Customer Unit, answer questions about Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS), Cloud RAN, and AI and automation for 5G. Want to ask our experts to shed light on a certain topic?

Submit your questions by contacting your Ericsson account representative.

Q: What is CBRS, and what revenuegenerating opportunities does it offer for carriers today?

Chotiner: CBRS is a band of spectrum from 3.55GHz to 3.70GHz that the U.S. FCC designated to be shared in a tiered access model: 1. Tier 1 (Incumbents): Incumbents are authorized federal users (e.g., US Navy), fixed satellite service earth stations, and—until their current licenses expire—grandfathered wireless broadband licensees. Tier 1 users are protected against interference from Tier 2 and Tier 3 users.

22

2. Tier 2 (Priority Access Licensees PAL): PAL is licensed on a county basis through FCC auction 105. Tier 2 users will be protected from interference by Tier 3 users and from other Tier 2 users.

3. Tier 3 (General Authorized Access GAA): GAA is the lowest tier of access.

It provides open access to CBRS to a wider group of users, provided they don’t interfere with Tier 1 and 2 users.

Using the CBRS spectrum is an appealing option for carriers due to the amount of spectrum CBRS makes available.

Remember that wireless capacity and data rates are a function of how much spectrum is available—and CBRS brings a lot more spectrum to the table than most traditional frequency bands. CBRS is especially appealing to wireless internet service providers (WISPS) because it opens opportunities to cost-effectively enter new markets that were previously unaffordable due to spectrum cost and availability.

We see three key usage segments emerging at this early stage of CBRS adoption: Fixed wireless access (FWA): FWA is the most common usage of CBRS among regional and rural carriers today. CBRS is a good fit for FWA for several reasons: • The CBRS band strikes a good balance between capacity and coverage.

• The CBRS frequency range is ideal for implementing some of the newer technologies that 3GPP enables such as multi-user multiple-input multipleoutput (MU-MIMO), which has the potential to multiply the capacity of a sector when used for FWA. • CBRS performs at very competitive speeds, making it practical for carriers to offer service up to 100 Mbps.

Mobile capacity augmentation: This use case is for high-traffic areas—schools, venues, outdoor events and other areas where many people are simultaneously accessing the limited capacity of existing wireless and Wi-Fi networks. We see carriers using CBRS to augment their network capacity.

Private wireless networks: In this scenario, CBRS is used to offer a private network for the end customer’s own use.

This could be for a university campus, an enterprise, a venue, a transportation hub, etc., or other cases where the customer wants a private network to run their own operations or for providing a reliable network to end customers. The private networks scenario is in its early days, but we expect to see lot more in the future.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Q: What is Ericsson Cloud RAN, and what are its implications for regional carriers?

Chotiner: To put Cloud RAN in context for this discussion, cloud technology offers new alternatives for radio access network (RAN) deployments to complement existing purpose-built solutions. Cloud RAN is an architecture for cellular networks in which RAN functions are run on generic compute platforms instead of purposebuilt hardware platforms, and cloud-native principles are used to manage the RAN application virtualization.

Our path to offering Cloud RAN began with our traditional radio access portfolio, which was created on purpose-built hardware. Several years ago, we started to define how to separate the hardware from the software to make it possible to use more common off-the-shelf hardware (COTS) in the portfolio and execute the RAN functionality in the software itself.

We announced plans for Ericsson Cloud RAN, which disaggregates the hardware and software, virtualizing the baseband functionality.

This new Cloud RAN will support our existing, high-performing portfolio of radios. We’ll use a staged approach, starting with our classic radios (the frequency division duplex [FDD] radios below 6GHz) and expanding to support our mid-band massive MIMO radios (the time division duplex [TDD] radios below 6 GHz) and high-band radios (>24 GHz – mmWave) over time.

Some key aspects of Ericsson Cloud RAN include: 1. Cloud-native, container-based implementation: This will enable our carrier customers to jump straight to a cloud-native offering and avoid the disruption of network function virtualization and other interim processes.

2. Open, interoperable interfaces to enable management, orchestration, automation and RAN programmability: Our Cloud RAN will have an open upper layer split between the centralized and distributed units (the two pieces that the baseband gets turned into with virtual RAN). It will also have open interfaces for service management and orchestration (the A1, O1 and O2 interfaces). These open interfaces enable programmability and automation—almost like an API into the RAN.

3. Pre-integrated solution that provides full functionality and seamless interworking with existing Ericsson infrastructure: Cloud RAN offers the complete Ericsson feature set and performance level as our purposebuilt solutions and can be added to the RAN that customers already have.

Customers will be able to use a mix of purpose-built Ericsson solutions and seamlessly integrated Cloud RAN, choosing the option that provides the best cost and operational efficiencies for any given scenario.

Cloud RAN is an evolving technology that will become disruptive as it continues to adopt leading practices to offer a foundation for openness and innovation in 5G. Implemented in the right way and at the right time, Cloud RAN will provide an energy-efficient, cost-effective and centralized network architecture.

Q. How will Ericsson support carriers who are looking to introduce Cloud RAN into their networks?

Bommakanti: We have a wealth of knowledge under our belts from building and running generations of robust RAN around the world and from our own journey to cloud-native development for core networks. For Ericsson Cloud RAN, we’ve drawn on the lessons of that journey to jump a couple of steps and go straight to a cloud-native offering.

Our experience and our cloud-native approach to Cloud RAN will help our customers shorten the learning curve with Cloud RAN and streamline their deployments. This experience and approach, combined with our deep awareness of what’s in the network today and how it all needs to work, enable us to tailor our guidance on Cloud RAN to the unique needs of each customer. For example, we will help our customers determine when and how to introduce Cloud RAN into their networks and offer pre-integrated solutions so that they don’t shift costs from an upfront CapEx model into a much more complex integration challenge and increase their OpEx. Bottom line, when our customers are ready to look at Cloud RAN, we will work with them to ensure their approach sets them up for success based on their specific customer traffic and traffic profiles, densities, etc. We’ll help them ensure they can realize savings and other practical benefits by introducing Cloud RAN into their networks.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

23

Cloud-native design: Why it’s important for regional carriers

By Surya Bommakanti We can think of cloud-native design as a step beyond virtualization on the journey to enable virtualized functions to leverage cloud technology. And this is a journey that’s relevant to every regional carrier today.

Virtualization was the first big step on the journey.

Virtualizing historical network functions (packet core network elements such as mobility management entities [MMEs], packet data network gateways [PGWs] and so on) made it possible to deploy software on commercial, off-the-shelf hardware. Done well, this enables a network with a common cloud infrastructure to run multiple virtual network functions.

But taking full advantage of cloud technology requires a further step. This is where we use the set of key design principles called cloud-native design to decompose the software into smaller, functional, independent pieces called microservices. Decomposing the software into microservices moves us further on the journey by significantly streamlining how we can manage resources.

Q: I’m hearing Ericsson talk about AI and automation for the 5G network.

Is this topic relevant for regional carriers? What do I need to know?

Bommakanti: This topic is certainly relevant for regional carriers today as you look toward bridging from a 4G to a 5G network. AI and specific AI technologies like machine learning will matter to you because they offer a path to better managing networks. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the new processes and automation that will allow you to improve operations and reduce costs.

Significant changes are underway in the network landscape as the industry shifts to 5G pose challenges for operators.

5G doesn’t just bring in another “G” into radio technology; it introduces a completely redesigned, rearchitected core network as well as brings more devices and different types of use cases into the network. This isn’t just a matter of adding more smartphones. It’s about all kinds of devices, from simple sensors to complex video technology, AR and VR gaming technologies, and so on. For regional carriers, this means more complexity in network architectures and the technologies

Some of the advantages of cloud-native design include: • Removing the need for virtual machines and the heavy layer of technology known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) that are required to run them, cloud-native design lets us deploy microservices onto “bare metal,” which provides more direct access to the functional and hardware resources.

• Microservices can be managed independently from each other across their lifecycle. That enables efficiencies such as being able to deploy smaller workloads in smaller networks or at the edge of the network, run continuous deployment processes to help get the functionality into the network, and so on.

Ultimately, building software according to cloud-native design principles is what makes it possible to take full advantage of the promise of cloud technology. This ties back to the virtualization journey that regional carriers are on today. We chose to use cloud-native design functions in the development of key solutions that will help operators advance on this journey.

you need to manage them, which ultimately can translate to higher costs for operators.

At Ericsson, we’ve sought out new approaches to network management to help address these complexities and keep operators’ costs in check.

To help our customers manage costs in this new environment, we’re building AI-driven technologies into our solutions that move us toward predictive operations—being more proactive and less reactive to network events. We’re focused on driving decisions about network management based on data we collect. All of this can significantly help with network management costs.

Investment in AI technologies is part of our long-term strategy. For more than a decade, we’ve invested heavily in the abilities to capture and learn from the data available to us, and we use the resulting knowledge to drive how we react to events in the network. We combine our data science skill sets with our competence in network engineering to automate everything that we learn.

We’ve brought the knowledge from all this research into our operations portfolio with the AI-based Ericsson Operations

Engine. It’s a solution that helps operators manage the growing numbers and types of devices in the network, the multiple technologies in play (4G, 5G and IoT) and diverse service requirements. Operators can access these on an end-to-end basis or by specific use-case driven access, which we can deliver through our product offerings or other service offerings.

Bill Chotiner Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the Regional Carriers Customer Unit, Ericsson

Surya Bommakanti Chief Information Officer for the Regional Carriers Customer Unit, Ericsson

24

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Serve

Ericsson partners with UNICEF to map school connectivity At Ericsson, connectivity is at the heart of what we do, so we’re excited to announce our global partnership with UNICEF to help map school connectivity in 35 countries by the end of 2023. We will contribute connectivity intelligence, data science capabilities and financial support to this vital initiative to bridge the deepening digital divide for the world’s young people.

Among the many inequalities worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for connectivity in schools has never been more acute. Education can empower every young person to thrive and is essential to solving the challenges of famine and disease.

Today, connectivity in schools is crucial to delivering this education. Yet according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), some 360 million young people lack internet access, resulting in exclusion and limited learning resources and opportunities for the most vulnerable children and youth.

UNICEF works to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children to build a better world for everyone. In line with this mission to work for every child, everywhere, UNICEF launched the Giga initiative with the ITU in 2019 to connect every school to the internet.

Before Giga can do so, however, it must understand where the connectivity gaps are.

As a global technology leader and a champion of education, we can help

UNICEF and partners meet this need. We have connected students and educators through our global Connect to Learn education program (which has reached more than 180,000 students across 25 countries to date) and have decades of experience in public/private partnerships.

• We will dedicate about 1,000 personnel hours to this initiative.

Our expertise in connectivity and experience with mobile operator data derived from communications infrastructure allows us to fully understand where connectivity in communities and schools exists and identify the gaps. In addition, our experience working with mobile operator data to extract valuable insights and our deep information and communications technology expertise will be key to the mapping project’s success.

• We will engage our extensive customer base in this project to further advance the mission.

Between now and the end of 2023:

• Giga will assess this data and convene governments and the private sector to design and deploy digital solutions that will ultimately enable learning for children and young people.

Working with UNICEF, we will make the vision of closing the digital divide for our world’s young people a reality.

Learn more about Ericsson’s Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility program here.

• We will help collect, validate, analyze, visualize and monitor school connectivity data in real time.

Listen to this podcast to hear Ericsson’s Heather Johnson, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, and Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships, speak to how our partnership will help connect every school to the internet.

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

25

Stories of impact from the Regional Connect community In each issue of ”Regional Connect Magazine,” we celebrate the philanthropic efforts of regional carriers. Thank you for everything you do to make your communities better and stronger.

UScellular supports JASON Learning STEM education initiatives A bright spot in 2020 was UScellular’s renewed commitment to providing access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. For the third consecutive year, UScellular donated $300,000 to the nonprofit JASON Learning, which, in partnership with STEMconnector, provides remote-based educational resources for U.S. students.

Last year, UScellular worked with JASON Learning on a STEMfocused design challenge in Milwaukee and Tulsa called “Connected Storm Sanctuary” to create a connected space for communities that face natural disasters. Students presented their sanctuary solutions in person to UScellular and JASON Learning associates during a

Day of Design expo, and prototypes were evaluated by a panel of judges.

UScellular was able to host a similar expo for students in Chicago earlier this year, but due to the pandemic, the Connected Storm Sanctuary challenge was made available online to students across the country, ensuring that classrooms can continue gaining educational and interactive STEM content.

Over the past decade, UScellular has donated more than $18.5 million and countless other experiences, technology items and volunteer efforts supporting local communities.

To learn more about UScellular’s community involvement, click here.

26

Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine

Why Ericsson?

Regional focus, global expertise

A leading provider of information and communication technology (ICT) to service providers, Ericsson enables the full value of connectivity by creating game-changing

140 years

technology and services that are easy to use, adopt and scale – making customers successful in a fully connected world.

Global Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden

of enabling communication

25,000 R&D employees1

99,000 employees

180+ Operates in 180+ countries

77 live 5G networks

54,000 patents

1

As of 12/31/2019 2

As of 1/1/2021

globally2

Ericsson  |  Regional Connect Magazine

Issue 3

North American Headquarters: Plano, Texas

34 Ericsson North America locations in the U.S.

6 live 5G networks across North America3

U.S.- based 5G Smart Factory

70+ regional carrier customers

Fully automated smart factory, producing 5G and Advanced Antenna System radios.

9,500 employees 3

As of 11/30/2020

27

About Ericsson Regional Connect Regional carriers are unique enterprises. They are an integral part of the communities they serve as much as they are businesses seeking growth and sustainability. The Ericsson Regional Connect program was born out of Ericsson’s recognition that regional carriers across the U.S. are united by these common values—and by common challenges: Values we share and challenges our global solutions are perfectly suited to meet.

With an array of live and virtual events, online forums and tools, Ericsson Regional Connect comprises a unique community that brings regional carriers together in an unprecedented way:

Share—Regional carriers will have access to Ericsson’s global technological leadership and expertise. And they will have a forum for sharing knowledge, ideas and best practices with one another.

Connect—Ericsson Regional Connect facilitates a wide range of opportunities for professionals in the industry to meet and partner with their peers.

Serve—Apply what you gain from Ericsson Regional Connect to better serve your customers, connect the unconnected and give back to your communities.

We invite you to explore what Ericsson Regional Connect can do for you—and what you can do for others. Visit the Regional Connect website.

About Ericsson Ericsson enables communications service providers to capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s portfolio spans Networks, Digital Services, Managed Services and Emerging Business and is designed to help our customers go digital, increase efficiency and find new revenue streams. Ericsson’s investments in innovation have delivered the benefits of telephony and mobile broadband to billions of people around the world. The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and on Nasdaq New York.

Follow us  Twitter  Facebook  LinkedIn  Contact us

Ericsson 6300 Legacy Drive | Plano, Texas 75024 Telephone (General inquiries): (972) 583-0000 | Telephone (Ericsson U.S. digital sales): (833) 374-7253 www.ericsson.com

The content of this document is subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Ericsson shall have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of this document. © Ericsson 2021