HPE completes purchase of Athonet

Tech giant HPE has finalised its acquisition of Italian private cellular network technology specialist Athonet, giving its private networks offering some significant additional firepower.

HPE first announced the acquisition in February, which was touted as a move to put it ‘at the forefront’ of the private 5G market by combining Athonet’s assets with its existing HPE telco and Aruba networking portfolios.

Based in Vicenza, Italy, Athonet has been in the 4G and 5G mobile core solutions game for 15 years, and has a client list of 450 firms in various industries such as mobile operators, hospitals, airports, transportation ports, utilities, government and public safety organizations.

Elaborating on the deal at MWC in March, Richard Band, Solution Lead Mobile Core & 5G at HPE told us in an interview: “We obviously bring the ability to scale up and industrialise which they don’t they don’t have. So that’s the key of the of the of the acquisition is to take something that is really good, really powerful, and just accelerate the heck out of it.”

HPE today explained in its announcement that the acquisition will enable HPE to offer a ‘holistic, straightforward approach’ to deploying the connected edge, that it will enable it to ‘empower both telcos and enterprises on their private networking journeys’, and help telcos monetise their network infrastructure by enabling the creation of ‘new revenue-generating services.’

“An immediate opportunity I see is with our telco customer base,” said Tom Craig, general manager, Communications Technology Group at HPE. “One of the paramount challenges telcos have faced over the years is generating new revenue from their networks. The monetization of network infrastructure has become increasingly complex as hyperscalers continue to extend their footprint into the telecom space. Telcos need to find ways to create value beyond basic data delivery and unlock new revenue-generating services.

“The emergence of private 5G networks presents a remarkable opportunity for telcos, with enterprise customers demanding customized 5G experiences that offer low latency, increased reliability and extended range. I passionately believe that HPE is the partner that telcos need to take advantage of this growing market.”

At The Future Enterprise Networks event in London this week, Athonet was namedropped regularly as a 5G core provider for private networks – this acquisition will no doubt make HPE a much stronger player in the burgeoning 5G private network space.

Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Register for the Telecoms.com newsletter here.