Ericsson opens innovative garage in Budapest to boost the “5G for Hungary” program

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) today had the official opening of the Ericsson Garage located within its R&D facility in Budapest, Hungary.

The Ericsson Garage, which is a critical hub for the 5G for Hungary program, is an incubator where all players in the eco system for the Networked Society can team up. This includes representatives from operators, academia, start-up companies and other industries as well as local communities.

5G for Hungary is part of the recently launched "5G for Europe" program, which will deliver industry pilots of 5G solutions in areas including the Internet of Things, energy and utilities, safety and security, public infrastructure and retail. It will include joint innovation and prototyping as well as demos to operators and enterprises.

Sara Mazur, Head of Ericsson Research, says: “I am really excited to expand the Ericsson Garage concept. By adding another Garage, we will gain even more valuable insights that will enable industries to digitalize effectively, to create new value and to strengthen the competitive position of European industry.”

These initiatives also support the recently launched “5G Exchange” (5GEx) collaborative innovation project co-funded by the European Commission and that is driven by the Ericsson Research team in Budapest.

5GEx aims to enable a unified European 5G infrastructure service market that integrates multiple operators and technologies.

The project focuses on supporting cross-domain service orchestration over multiple administrations or multi-domain single administrations. Orchestration will be compatible with Network Functions Virtualization and software-defined networking technologies. End-to-end network and service elements will be able to mix in multi-vendor, heterogeneous technology and resource environments.

In conjunction to the opening of the Ericsson Garage in Budapest, we will execute a Europe-wide innovation competition with the purpose to encourage the European ecosystem to create challenging and valuable applications for the Networked Society. Winners of the innovation contest will not only receive high value prizes but also the possibility to make a pitch presentation of their prototype idea in the Ericsson Garage in Budapest.

Notes to editors

Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society – a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.

Our services, software and infrastructure – especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud – are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.

With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions – and our customers – stay in front.

Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2014 were SEK 228.0 billion (USD 33.1 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.

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