New Delhi, Sep 12: Ericsson and T-Mobile on Wednesday announced a multi-year USD 3.5 billion contracts to support T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network deployment.

Bridging from a nationwide LTE Advanced network to 5G, T-Mobile will leverage Ericsson's market-leading 5G portfolio to expand existing LTE capacity needs while future-proofing the network.

The contract also encompasses Ericsson's digital services solutions, including dynamic orchestration, business support systems (BSS) and Ericsson Cloud Core, enabling T-Mobile to rapidly launch innovative and groundbreaking 5G experiences to customers.

"While the other guys just make promises, we're putting our money where our mouth is. With this new Ericsson agreement we're laying the groundwork for 5G - and with Sprint, we can supercharge the 5G revolution," said Chief Technology Officer, T-Mobile, Neville Ray.

"We have recently decided to increase our investments in the US to be closer to our leading customers and better support them with their accelerated 5G deployments; thereby bringing 5G to life for consumers and enterprises across the country. This agreement marks a major milestone for both companies," said President and Head of Ericsson North America, Niklas Heuveldop.

5G promises to deliver very high data speeds, extremely low latency, ultra-high reliability, energy efficiency and extreme device densities, which will be realized by the development of LTE in combination with new radio-access technologies.

Under the terms of the new deal, Ericsson will supply hardware and software from its market-ready 5G Platform, which includes its strengthened Ericsson Radio System portfolio, across all spectrum bands available to T-Mobile. Additionally, T-Mobile's already installed base of Ericsson Radio System radios will be able to run 5G NR technology with simple remote software installation.