Ericsson and Viettel team up to develop autonomous network tech

Details: John Tanner; Category: Operators; 04 March 2026; 8898 views

Ericsson announced at Mobile World Congress 2026 on Wednesday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vietnamese operator Viettel to collaborate on autonomous network development.

Under the MoU, Ericsson and Viettel will run joint R&D activities, lab trials and validations to explore architecture, orchestration, AI-driven closed‑loop automation and performance optimization.

Ericsson said the partnership will focus on developing practical use cases that deliver measurable operational and customer experience improvements, including automation of network operations and RAN optimization.

The first step will be a pilot of Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) and Ericsson AI rApps to bring AI into the network.

The deal will also see Viettel join the EIAP ecosystem, which will give it access to the rApp directory with nearly 90 members (20 of whom are telcos) and nearly 90 available rApps.

Viettel also gets access to the dedicated Developer Portal, tools to support Viettel in its own rApp development, and a GenAI development assistant that Ericsson said will allow Viettel to craft its own rApps 50% faster.

“We are partnering with Ericsson to make the Viettel network autonomous, self-managing and zero-touch to replace manual operations with AI-driven, intent-based systems,” said Viettel Networks CEO Luu Manh Ha in a statement. “This will enable Viettel to improve service agility, reduce costs, and support complex 5G/6G use cases.”

“By collaborating closely with Viettel, we are looking to advance the use of AI at scale, orchestration, and high-performance programmable networks,” added Ericsson Vietnam president Rita Mokbel.