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Will Cisco Scrap Ericsson Partnership in Favour of Juniper?

Today (23rd May), sources close to Comms Business revealed that Cisco are looking to dump long time contract with Ericsson in favour of Juniper Networks. The rumours have emerged after Borje Ekholm, Ericsson CEO, admitted, at this year's Mobile World Congress, that the partnership “hasn’t reached the level” that the two companies expected.

He did say the two companies are still working together and are looking for new areas where they can cooperate but gave no details as to which areas this would be in.

Back in 2015 Cisco announced a landmark deal with Ericsson which would see the two companies collaborate to create futuristic networks. The Ericsson-Cisco duo extended routing, data center, networking, cloud, mobility, management and control, and global services capabilities to clients across the globe.

Initially, the partnership was reported to be on track with quick wins in IP (routing and transport) and services. It was also rumoured that Cisco might even look to buy Ericsson and sweep up their managed service contracts which would allow Cisco to perform 5G trials all over the world. In November, Ericsson told investors during the company’s Capital Market Days that the partnership wouldn’t reach its target to generate $1 billion in revenue for each company by 2018.

Perhaps Ericsson's focus on the 5G market has prompted Cisco to go elsewhere? Why Juniper Networks? We will be asking these questions to both companies in the following weeks as the potential of a deal becomes clearer.