Cisco and NEC expanded their long-standing integrator partnership to now include the deployment of 5G IP transport network equipment. The move could prove to be a boost for Cisco, which continues to struggle in gaining a wider hold of the 5G equipment market.

The Global System Integrator Agreement (GSIA) calls for NEC to act as a systems integrator to incorporate Cisco’s IP access transport and edge cloud computing equipment targeting 5G deployments. Cisco will support NEC in those customer engagements and deployments.

The vendors will also work together to further optimize their joint offering for specific international markets.

NEC has a long history of working with Cisco stretching back more than two decades. This includes the two working together on 4G LTE equipment that combined NEC’s RAN and backhaul assets with Cisco’s network equipment.

The two firms last year bolstered efforts in ensuring the security of their networking equipment. This involved using NEC’s blockchain technologies and Cisco’s fraud detection technologies to confirm the authenticity of network equipment used for security and critical industrial infrastructure before it was shipped to a customer, during the construction of those networks, and during operation.

And they were both part of Rakuten Mobile’s mobile network deployment in Japan. NEC has so far gained the most from that deployment as it’s been tapped to provide a standalone (SA) 5G core. Cisco for its part was initially part of Rakuten Mobile’s 4G LTE deployment, but has been conspicuously absent from the carrier’s more recent 5G plans.

Cisco has been steadily bolstering its 5G-facing focus with updates to its routing and networking equipment. This includes updates earlier this year to its router portfolio, and scoring a deal late last year with AT&T to assist with disaggregated IP routing technology for an edge routing platform.

Cisco has also been working with Japanese carrier KDDI on its 5G and network virtualization efforts. This included a proof-of-concept (PoC) last year that demonstrated cloud-native software with Cisco’s Ultra Packet Core platform.

However, it continues to lag behind the more established telecom vendors in providing 5G equipment. A recent Dell’Oro Group report placed Cisco a distant No. 5 among 5G equipment suppliers, with its market penetration having shrunk by 1 percentage point between 2019 and 2020 to just 6%.