Ericsson announced on Tuesday its collaboration with Ooredoo Qatar to enhance its charging system with a cloud-native solution, aimed at enabling the telecom operator to more flexibly monetize its 5G standalone (5G SA) network.
The upgrade includes the latest version of Ericsson Charging, which will be hosted on the company’s Cloud Native Infrastructure (CNIS). Ericsson highlighted that the charging solution incorporates a 3GPP-compliant 5G charging function, designed to help telecoms efficiently and securely bill for new 5G SA services.
Ooredoo Qatar aims to leverage the new charging system to support a wide range of advanced business models, partnerships, and differentiated 5G services. These include gaming, video streaming, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, and other high-speed, data-heavy use cases that require low latency and reliable connections.
“The modernization of our charging system is a key step in unlocking the full potential of 5G standalone services, further cementing our leadership in next-generation digital experiences,” said Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar.
Earlier this year, Ooredoo Qatar also contracted Ericsson to provide its latest RAN and microwave backhaul solutions to expand its 5G coverage. Additionally, the operator implemented a mediation solution from Ericsson to better extract and utilize network and IT system data.
In the same month, Ooredoo Qatar signed an agreement with Nokia to modernize its core network to support standalone 5G services.
