Juniper/Ericsson mobile JV bears fruit
By Emily Bourne, Total Telecom, in Cannes
20 February 2002
Juniper Networks and Ericsson announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes their first joint product for the GPRS and 3G network space.
The companies unveiled the J20 gateway GPRS support node (GGSN), a gateway connecting GPRS and WCDMA networks to external IP packet networks such as the Internet or corporate LANs. The J20 is based on a Juniper M20 router with two new physical interface cards, Christopher Komatas, mobile marketing manager at Juniper, told .
Juniper also announced two customers for the product: Italian mobile operator Wind and satellite service provider Inmarsat. Both sales were part of a broad Ericsson GPRS/3G contract. (Inmarsat plans to offer GPRS-like services via satellite). Canada's Rogers and China Mobile are also Juniper customers (via Ericsson) for the GPRS/3G core.
“All the mobile operators we are talking to are committed to offering IP services to customers over IP infrastructure,” said Komatas. Juniper believes that the transition to all-IP requires a partnership between a mobile specialist and an IP specialist - “It's not just one or the other”
“One thing mobile operators don't have is IP skills,” he added. And generally operators have imposed hiring freezes, so it is difficult for them to bring in the skills from outside.
The gateway is integrated into Ericsson's overall GPRS and 3G systems and from now on in will form part of the vendor's standard offering. (It will not be available through any other channels). Juniper's M-series routers have always been part of Ericsson's standard product set for both edge and core in wireless and wireline, Komatas added.
The Swedish company wrote the GPRS application software for the new product; which runs, like all Juniper's routers, over the JUNOS operating system.
Ericsson and Juniper formed EJN Mobile IP Inc. in November 2000. The company, based in Boston, is 60% owned by Ericsson and 40% by Juniper. At its launch, the parents pledged to invest US$50 million over the first year of operation.
Komatas would not comment on plans for future product releases. |
