Ericsson creates new federal group focused on 5G
Gettyimages.com/Weiquan Lin
By
Nick Wakeman
The global telecommunications company brings over a former Booz Allen Hamilton executive to lead the team that is also spending some time on what will be 6G.
Ericsson has stood up a federal group to deliver 5G-enabled digital transformation solutions across the government.
Christopher Ling will lead the new unit and joins Ericsson from Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked for close to 30 years most recently was executive vice president and group lead for the firm's national security business.
Federal agencies are looking at 5G as critical to their adoption of other commercial technologies.
“Connecting individuals, businesses and national security depends on secure, reliable and resilient 5G infrastructure,” said Yossi Cohen, president and head of Ericsson North America.
Ericsson is involved in existing projects with the U.S. government such as the Defense Department, where it provides the foundation of multiple 5G prototype deployments.
The unit now led by Ling will be known as Ericsson Federal Technologies Group and offer advisory services to federal agencies who are designing secure and highly-integrated networking solutions. The unit will also work with systems integrators to analyze requirements.
Ericsson also is working toward the eventual 6G protocol and has partnerships with both the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Wireless Research Facility and the wireless association CTIA.