The new agreement underlines NEC's successful track record as a Cisco Gold Partner over two decades, and its proven engineering capabilities to provide Cisco products to its global customer base across multiple regions. Under the agreement, the companies will jointly drive new business opportunities for 5G. NEC group companies will work closely with Cisco to complement NEC's ecosystem with optimized IP metro/access transport and edge cloud computing solutions. Cisco will support NEC's customer engagements by offering best-in-class products, proposals and execution support.

NEC's comprehensive expertise as a network integrator in both the IT and network domains, coupled with Cisco's innovative 5G solutions portfolio, promise to provide tremendous added value to the 5G ecosystem. NEC and Cisco will make collaborative efforts to further enhance their joint solution portfolio and to optimize regional activities for advancing the digital transformation of customers across the globe.

"We believe 5G is fueling the internet for the future, and accelerating our customers' digital transformations," said Jonathan Davidson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. "Together with NEC, we are creating a powerful force to drive the critical changes needed in networking infrastructure to carry the internet into the next decade."

"Collaboration across the network solution ecosystem is essential for continued success in meeting diversified customer requirements and establishing a win-win relationship," said Mayuko Tatewaki, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Division, NEC Corporation. "This powerful partnership strengthens our global competitiveness as a network integrator that drives the customer journey with innovative solutions."