Networking vendor Ericsson has officially inaugurated the first of a series of purpose-built R&D centers in Rosersberg, Sweden.

The 20,000 square meter facility is being called a Global ICT Center and is positioned as ‘an important step in the company’s ongoing ICT transformation journey.’It is the first such purpose-built site, although a similar facility already exists on the existing Ericsson site in Linköping. The company plans to open another new ICT center in Montreal, Canada within months.

The main purpose of these new facilities is to enable large-scale modelling of live operator networks in order to test new products and solutions. Currently, the company’s test environments are spread across more than 50 locations worldwide and Ericsson reckons centralising them in these centers will shorten development cycles.

“Through today’s inauguration of our second Global ICT Center, Ericsson’s vision of a Networked Society moves closer,” said Anders Lindblad, Head of Business Unit Cloud and IP at Ericsson. “By streamlining R&D through our cloud-powered Global ICT Centers, we will enable new services and innovations that will create benefits for people, business and society.

“Our company’s ICT transformation journey is accelerating, and the Global ICT Centers will support 24/7 collaboration and ensure we can leverage our global skills and scale to the full. At the same time, with an explosion in data traffic we can bring Ericsson’s technology and services leadership to customers faster than ever before.”