5G Factor: Arrcus, T-Mobile, Ericsson Boost 5G Readiness

Futurum Tech Webcast

In this episode of The 5G Factor, our series that focuses on all things across the 5G ecosystem, we review the recent key 5G-related moves made by players advancing 5G readiness consisting Arrcus landing $30 million in new investment including NVIDIA, T-Mobile launching the Partner Plus channel program at reducing 5G laptop and FWA price barriers, and Ericsson providing perspective on how mobile operators can make progress in offering differentiated connectivity.

Our analytical review drilled down on:

Arrcus Lands New Investors Spotlighting NVIDIA Relation. In July, Arrcus announced a significant new investment of $30 million from Prosperity7 Ventures, NVIDIA, Lightspeed, Hitachi Ventures, Liberty Global, Clear Ventures, and General Catalyst. Arrcus’ routing and switching platform, Arrcus Connected Edge (or ACE), features a distributed microservices architecture that is flexible, high-performance, fully programmable, and hybrid cloud ready. We assess why Arrcus’ ACE networking platform, using the NVIDIA BlueField DPU, can enable customers to efficiently offload, accelerate, and isolate compute-intensive networking applications such as security and traffic engineering.

T-Mobile Focuses on Lowering 5G Laptop and FWA Barriers. T-Mobile announcing the launch of Partner Plus, a new channel subsidy program designed to reduce the initial cost of 5G laptops and enterprise-grade 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) equipment from Cradlepoint, part of Ericsson. We examine how T-Mobile’s new program can help businesses overcome cost barriers, as it has teamed up with major global distributors Ingram Micro and TD SYNNEX alongside the Cradlepoint partnership. This collaboration can enable the immediate and convenient procurement of 5G capabilities, through 5G laptops and 5G FWA solutions, at attractive price points while fulfilling the topmost security concerns of businesses through key offerings such as T-Mobile Secure Access Service Edge, the SIM-based SASE solution that uses International Mobile Subscriber Identity and International Mobile Equipment Identity for clientless authentication.

Ericsson Advocates Differentiated Connectivity. Ericsson shares its perspective on how communication service providers (CSPs) currently offer a buffet of dishes at a fixed price, but some dishes are eaten by most consumers while others are barely touched. Buffets usually mean a significant amount of food wastage. As a result, some customers experience disappointment due to the quality of food, while others consume, either more or less than what they have paid for. All in all, this is a ‘best effort’ type of restaurant, offering too much at a satisfactory quality. We explore how things are changing as 5G networks enable CSPs to offer the possibility to launch bistro versions of the restaurant, providing a menu to consumers instead. The Ericsson Mobility Report (June 2024) indicates that 5G uptake has increased and that mobile data traffic has increased by 25 percent between 2023 and 2024 providing broader opportunity for CSPs to enable businesses and developers to offer guaranteed and secure mobile connectivity, centered around the value of service differentiation, to fulfill the unique needs of customers.