T-Mobile picks Cisco to build nationwide 5G Virtual Packet Core

T-Mobile announced the completion of its virtualized packet core buildout across its nationwide footprint using Cisco’s distributed SDN architecture,

The companies describe the deployment as the world’s largest virtual packet core, supporting more than 70 million customers.

Cisco and T-Mobile U.S. have also signed a five-year agreement to continue buildout of T-Mobile’s 5G Packet Core and Policy Suite spanning hardware, software and services.

With Cisco Ultra Virtual Packet Core & Policy solution, T-Mobile can deploy 5G nationwide, while realizing the full potential of virtualization and cloud to offer its customers new services faster.

“This was a significant undertaking for us, shifting from a centralized to a distributed core architecture across our footprint, and we couldn’t have achieved that without virtualization,” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer, T-Mobile. “This means we can further our 5G plans with more flexibility and agility to deliver new services to our customers – and with Sprint we’ll shift it all into overdrive!”

“The size and scope of this project with T-Mobile marks a milestone as the largest virtual packet core operating today,” said Jonathan Davidson, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco. “With this new virtualized architecture with massive scale, T-Mobile can launch new services with automated deployments, spending minutes to deploy what used to take months.”