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Verizon Rollout Lifts Network Throughput Up to 9%

Verizon's nationwide Ericsson rollout is a committed deployment, and its path toward Level 4 network autonomy remains under test.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence

Isometric editorial illustration of plain matte radio antenna modules on a steel lattice tower above an equipment cabinet, in muted slate, teal, and mustard.
Verizon began a nationwide rollout of Ericsson's Intelligent Controller to automate radio network operations, with its push toward Level 4 autonomy still under test. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Verizon has announced a nationwide rollout of the Ericsson Intelligent Controller, a platform for AI-native rApps that automate radio access network (RAN) operations. The rollout is a stage in an ongoing Verizon-Ericsson collaboration; the announcement describes a committed deployment rather than a completed one, so its full effect on the network is not yet demonstrated.

Why it matters

Carriers are moving from scripted network management toward software that diagnoses and tunes radio networks on its own, a path the TM Forum frames as a Level 0 to Level 5 autonomy scale that most networks currently sit between Level 2 and Level 3 on. Verizon's push toward Level 4 in critical core network segments shows the industry's next step is being tested in live production networks.

Field deployment of the Advanced Antenna System Cell shaper rApp produced gains of up to 8.9% in downlink data radio bearer throughput and up to 8% in uplink user equipment throughput. These are maximum figures from the reported deployment, and the source does not detail the test conditions or sites behind them.

The players

Verizon

A major U.S. wireless carrier pursuing AI-driven network autonomy, with CTO Yago Tenorio leading its push toward Level 4 automation.

Ericsson

A Swedish telecommunications equipment maker whose Intelligent Automation Platform hosts the Intelligent Controller and rApps used in RAN automation.

The details

Radio access networks are the cell towers and antennas that connect phones to the core network, and they have historically been tuned by engineers working through fixed rules. Verizon and Ericsson are instead building rApps, which are cloud-native software applications that run on top of the RAN and act as its building blocks, letting the network adjust itself. The Ericsson Intelligent Controller, part of the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, is the layer that hosts these applications, and the rollout aims to apply such automation systematically across the RAN lifecycle.

Timeline

  1. Earlier this year, Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio said the carrier was pushing toward Level 4 autonomy in critical core network segments.

  2. This year, the nationwide rollout of the Ericsson Intelligent Controller was committed.

The Tech Race

The TM Forum's autonomy scale ranks most networks between Level 2 and Level 3, and Verizon is now aiming for Level 4 in critical core network segments. Ericsson's Intelligent Automation Platform positions the vendor as a supplier of the software layer that carriers need to reach those higher levels.

The rollout is committed for this year, but the source gives no dates for when customers will see changes in speed or reliability. Users will not directly interact with the rApps, so any benefit would appear as network performance rather than a new feature.

The takeaway

The next thing to watch is whether Verizon reports Level 4 autonomy results in core network segments as the additional Ericsson and self-designed rApps are tested and deployed. Those deployment results would show whether the field gains seen so far hold across the wider network.

Further reading

For more on where AI is reshaping infrastructure, explore Artificial Intelligence coverage across the United States.