Ericsson expands unified delivery network ecosystem with new partner additions

Following the introduction of Unified Delivery Network (UDN) during Mobile World Congress in February 2016,  Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has announced additional content and service provider companies have joined the global content delivery ecosystem. China Telecom, Chunghwa Telecom, Dolby Laboratories, Far EasTone Telecommunications, Globe Telecom, Mavshack, Paramount Pictures, Singtel, SK Broadband, XL Axiata, Vubiquity and Twentieth Century Fox represent the latest additions to an expanding list of companies that are uniting to significantly advance the traditional content delivery network model.

Previously announced partners include Hutchison Global Communications, Telstra, AIS, Vodafone, Brightcove, DailyMotion, EchoStar, Deluxe, LeTV and QuickPlay. Ericsson will be working with all these partners, as well as Ericsson's own platforms - Ericsson Managed Player and MediaFirst.

"UDN's disruptive business model has struck a chord with service and content providers that want more flexibility, visibility and control over the delivery of high-quality OTT services. Ericsson, along with its partners, have successfully created a win-win content delivery play that drastically improves how a broad range of services are delivered to customers around the world," said Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Support Solutions at Ericsson.

Content and service providers face major hurdles as they aim to keep pace with the increasingly stringent delivery demands of high-quality services and seek the best delivery of new services, such as IoT. At the same time, traditional content delivery networks have grown less attractive as these providers seek full transparency and control over end-to-end delivery to take advantage of myriad value-add opportunities. UDN addresses this dynamic by breaking down the silos that have existed between content and service providers, providing full visibility over how services are delivered and consumed.

Unified Delivery Network is a global content distribution network (G-CDN) ecosystem that enables and aggregates network capabilities into the public domain, allowing services to be optimized and scaling the delivery of over-the-top (OTT) services and high quality video content. Ericsson and its global service provider partners will work collaboratively to deliver enhanced business and customer values by harnessing the following agile services and capabilities enabled by UDN, including:

Last mile: With the last mile edge delivery, content providers are equipped to optimize services and scale the delivery of high quality content and advanced services including 4K, Ultra High Definition, gaming and virtual reality.

Global reach: With a content peering partnership, the collective members of the Unified Delivery Network have a full global reach for content delivery and value-add services to keep pace with the number of growing viewers, gamers and data surge with the rise of broadband connectivity and mobility.

Rich data analytics: Insights into drivers of revenue such as campaign performance and user engagement from operators enable Ericsson Unified Delivery Network to offer hyper-targeted content offerings and advertising, leading to highly personalized viewing experiences and greater business opportunities.

Service enablement: Content providers can add services through the service provider's networks at any given time, enabling rapid innovation, cost savings, and faster time to market for new services.

Ericsson's longstanding relationships with industry players spanning the entire media chain allow it to facilitate and create new business relationships in the ecosystem.