Ericsson and Zain present the Middle East’s first proof of concept for Network Functions Virtualization

The first day of the Zain Technology Conference in Bahrain saw Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Zain announce the Middle East’s first proof of concept for virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) and virtual IP Multimedia Subsystem (vIMS) solutions combined together with an ambition to offer customers a better user experience. 

The objective of the proof of concept is to demonstrate cloud use cases that enable Zain to have faster time to market and easy deployment of many ICT services such as, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Machine to Machine (M2M), Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Enterprise Solutions. 

Hisham Allam, Chief Technology Officer, Zain Group said: ““We are keen to lead the way in the region when it comes to virtualization as it paves the road for implementation of new technologies across all our markets. Partnering with Ericsson enables us to achieve our strategic goals when it comes to enhanced operational effectiveness and customer experience."  

On her part, Rafiah Ibrahim, President of Ericsson, Region Middle East and Africa said, "The successful Proof of Concept exercise showcases the possibility for operators to deploy NFV on a broader scale. By using this technology, telecom operators such as Zain are able to build global standard agile networks and speed up their new service introduction.” 

The Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment and Ericsson Cloud Manager are based on Open stack, OPNFV and ETSI MANO, allowing operators to deploy Ericsson's and other vendors' hardware and virtualized software products. This also helps operators to allocate their network resources more flexibly, simplifying network configuration, and ensuring savings in operational and capital expenditure.

“The Networked Society will empower transformation, creating disruptive changes across both industries and society as a whole. This collaboration with Zain to deploy the first virtualization technologies in terms of virtual Evolved Packet Core and virtual IP Multimedia Subsystem demonstrates the trajectory with which regional operators are able to transform to Ericsson’s vision of the Networked Society,” added Ibrahim.