Simultaneously, the company has launched a set of pre-designed transformation pathways to help CSPs move beyond pilot-stage autonomy.
The two announcements, made ahead of DTW Ignite in Copenhagen this week, mark a significant step in Ericsson’s autonomous networks strategy and represent the company’s most comprehensive push yet to give communication service providers the tools to run networks with minimal human intervention.
The expanded Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), previously limited to the radio access network domain, will now support core network automation through a new category of AI-driven applications called cApps, core-specific equivalents of the rApps already running on the platform. The move makes Ericsson the first vendor to introduce the concept of cApps and means operators can run automation applications across both RAN and core from a single, open platform.
Alongside the EIAP expansion, Ericsson is introducing Ericsson Stream Processing and Enrichment (ESPE), a new data streaming capability built into Ericsson Network Manager. ESPE collects real-time streaming data from Ericsson RAN, core, and Open RAN RAN nodes, acting as a network-wide single source of truth for low-latency event data to power closed-loop automation.
AT&T and Swisscom have both backed the move publicly. Rob Soni, VP of RAN technology at AT&T, said a single platform running both cApps and rApps gives operators “a critical tool for delivering on the vision of a truly autonomous network, harnessing the power of agentic AI, that can sense, decide, and act in real time.”
Swisscom’s executive vice president of mobile network and services, Philipp Bichsel, described the expansion as “a powerful tool for building on early success with RAN automation, extending those abilities to help deliver an autonomous and programmable network end-to-end.”
Ericsson currently has more than 150 contracts with global CSPs for 5G Core or cloud-native core, and EIAP is already in use at AT&T, Swisscom, Telstra and Vodafone among others. The rApp ecosystem counts more than 100 available applications from over 100 members, a model Ericsson says it will replicate for cApps.
The second announcement introduces OSS/BSS Business Value Pathways: pre-designed, integrated solution combinations built on Ericsson’s OSS/BSS portfolio and its AI and automation capabilities, designed to give CSPs defined routes to specific autonomous network outcomes rather than open-ended transformation programmes. Four pathways have been defined at launch: a foundational data modernisation pathway, zero-touch product launch, agentic AI service experience, and agentic AI intelligent IT operations, with more to follow.
The announcements come as Ericsson’s own data shows 68% of CSPs had commercially deployed network or service automation by the end of last year, though only 8% had done so at scale, a gap both sets of capabilities are directly aimed at closing.
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