18th February 2011
A strategic partnership between Ericsson and Akamai was announced this week, allowing the mobile phone giants to use Akamai’s Content Delivery technology through mobile networks.
The agreement will help Ericsson take advantage of recent internet rule changes by the Federal Communications Commission that gives mobile operators the ability to prioritise the delivery of content on their networks.
Akamai’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) technology routes internet traffic intelligently based on user location, and can add vital edge caching capabilities to a mobile network. By doing this, Ericsson hopes to improve the quality of experience for users accessing their internet network, and will also reduce congestion.
One of the key areas of focus mentioned by the new partners was the speed of e-commerce and banking, still considered an area requiring mass improvement in the mobile device market. Through Akamai’s CDNs, Ericsson hopes to be able to develop these areas for users based on a ‘guaranteed quality of service’ provided by the CDN company.
The partnership is expected to spawn other similar partnerships among the heavy-hitters in the mobile phone market, as the use of CDN technology allows them to develop new revenue streams through charging application developers for faster delivery on their network.
