Telstra Partners with Cradlepoint to Develop ?5G for Business' Customer Edge Solution

Mobile World Congress Americas ? Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G Ready wireless network edge solutions, today announced a partnership with Telstra to develop a "5G for Business" solution to be deployed at the customer edge and provide the performance, security and management that businesses demand.

Under the partnership, Telstra will tap into Cradlepoint's deep enterprise cellular expertise and NetCloud platform to collaborate on the development of an integrated 5G modem and edge router solution that works seamlessly with its 5G mobile technology.

"5G internet broadband for business customers of all sizes represents a significant opportunity for Telstra," commented Andrew Stormont, Telstra's product & service design executive. "We know that the networking needs of our small-to-medium business and enterprise customers are very different from consumers', which has played a key role in our decision to partner with Cradlepoint for a ?5G for Business' solution."

Stormont continued, "Telstra's aim is to deliver Australians with the best 5G available, and we are always testing, evaluating and implementing the latest emerging wireless ecosystem technologies. We're proud to be leading the way in our deployment of this technology, for both consumers and enterprise."

The needs of business customers differ significantly from consumers when it comes to manageability, security and reliability, requiring a different approach to customer edge solutions. Additionally, 5G must fit within their overall wide-area network (WAN) architectures, which includes SD-WAN.

Cradlepoint is the market leader in 4G LTE and 5G Ready solutions for small-to-medium business, enterprise and public sector customers. Through its NetCloud service, Cradlepoint provides wireless edge solutions for fixed, mobile and IoT networks designed to work in lock-step with the most advanced LTE networks and provide a graceful "Pathway to 5G." Cradlepoint NetCloud, which includes software-defined modem technology, is a comprehensive platform that enables customers to build and manage wireless WANs with complete lifecycle management, robust edge security and SD-WAN traffic management for optimal performance and reliability.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Telstra ? Australia's leading wireless operator ? to create a new ?5G for business' offering that will modernize private WAN and internet access for business customers across the country," explained Andrew Volard, executive director, Carrier Business Development, APAC at Cradlepoint. "Telstra understands that business customers are ready to embrace 5G to enable disruptive new applications that can transform business and customer experiences, but they cannot afford to lose critical enterprise-class capabilities to get it."

"?5G for Business' is developing into a massive market opportunity for wireless operators and providing a foundation to grow and expand other services, such as managed services, multi-access edge computing, vCPE, security, and differentiated services via network slicing, that elevates them beyond a fast dumb pipe," stated Mike Sapien, chief analyst, Ovum. "Cradlepoint is already a leader in providing advanced mobile LTE and 5G Ready wireless edge solutions today and a first-mover in collaborating with carriers and ecosystem partners to develop the ?5G for Business' solutions and new business models needed to break this market open in 2020."

About Telstra

Telstra is a leading telecommunications and information services company. We offer a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets in Australia, operating the largest mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Globally, we provide end-to-end solutions including managed network services, global connectivity, cloud, voice, colocation, conferencing and satellite solutions. We have licenses in Asia, Europe and the United States and offer access to more than 2,000 points of presence across the globe. For more information visit www.telstra.com.

About Cradlepoint

Cradlepoint is a global leader in cloud-delivered wireless edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks. The Cradlepoint NetCloud service ? based on the Elastic Edgetm architecture ? delivers an agile, pervasive, and software-defined wireless edge that connects people, places and things everywhere over LTE and 5G cellular networks with resiliency, security, and control. More than 18,000 active enterprise and government organizations around the world, including 75 percent of the world's top retailers, 50 percent of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 25 of the largest U.S. cities, rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical branches, points of commerce, field forces, vehicles, and IoT devices always connected and protected. Major service providers use Cradlepoint wireless solutions as the foundation for innovative managed network services. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with a development centre in Silicon Valley and international offices in the UK and Australia.