Networking giant Ericsson and Swedish  telco TeliaSonera have announced they expect their 5G collaboration to begin providing services to customers as soon as 2018.

The two companies are talking up their partnership and ‘common understanding of market and customer needs’, which we’re told helps to turn things around quickly and to develop 5G use-cases including IoT.

“More and more industries tap into the value of digitalization and connectivity,” said Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg. “5G will amplify that as it is designed to be the industrial internet. It will not only be built for consumers, but also for digitalization of industries and the Internet of Things. Together with TeliaSonera we launched the first commercial 4G network in 2009, we will be in the forefront of 5G as well.”

“Our ambition is to be at the cutting edge at all times, offering our customers and society at large all the possibilities that technology brings,” said Johan Dennelind, CEO of TeliaSonera. Stockholm and Tallinn are two of the most connected cities in the world and now we’ll take them to the next level. 5G will create completely new innovations, ecosystems and great services to our customers. 5G will also take connected things (IoT) to a new level. I can’t wait to see how Stockholm and Tallinn will embrace 5G.”

Ericsson has been keen to position itself as a leader in the race to 5G, with MTS announcing its partnership with the vendor should yield commercial 5G by 2018 too, while Ericsson will start field-testing 5G prototypes this year. Things should get even more interesting once we work out exactly what 5G is.