Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the acquisition of Athonet, a private cellular network technology provider that delivers mobile core networks to enterprises and communication service providers.
HPE, which has the HPE telco and Aruba networking portfolios, aims to expand its connected edge-to-cloud offering.
Athonet will put HPE at the forefront of a growing market that is predicted by IDC to increase to more than $1.6 billion by 2026. HPE did not reveal financial details of the deal to buy Vicenza, Italy-based Athonet.
Athonet has more than 15 years of experience delivering 4G and 5G mobile core solutions to customers and partners globally. Athonet has more than 450 customer deployments in various industries, including mobile operators, hospitals, airports, transportation ports, utilities, government and public safety organizations.
The incorporation of Athonet’s technology will allow HPE to deliver private networking capabilities directly to enterprises as part of HPE’s Aruba networking portfolio, while also enabling communications service providers (CSPs) to quickly deploy private 5G networks for their customers.
“Telco customers are looking for simpler ways to deploy private 5G networks to meet growing customer expectations at the connected edge,” said Tom Craig, global vice president and general manager, Communications Technology Group at HPE. “With the acquisition of Athonet, HPE now has one of the most complete private 5G and Wi-Fi portfolios for CSP and enterprise customers – and we will offer it as a service through HPE GreenLake.”
HPE will integrate Athonet’s technology into its existing CSP and Aruba networking enterprise offerings to create a private networking portfolio that accelerates digital transformation from edge-to-cloud.
The addition of Athonet’s software to HPE’s telco portfolio enhances the broadest communications portfolios in the market, which serves a base of more than 300 customers across 160 countries and connects more than one billion mobile devices worldwide.
Building on its existing private 5G solutions, HPE’s enhanced offering for CSPs will support private 4G and 5G networks and include telco-grade orchestration and automation capabilities. These capabilities will help launch new B2B services that meet growing customer expectations for the connected edge.
HPE GreenLake, HPE’s edge-to-cloud platform, will offer Athonet private 5G offerings, combining all costs for Wi-Fi and private 5G into one single monthly subscription with no capital expenditure. Flexible consumption options, including HPE’s networking as a service, mean private 5G networks can be deployed with reduced risk, little upfront investment and scaled according to demand.
