Plano, Texas – November 03, 2026 -- Verizon (NYSE: VZ) will roll out the Ericsson Intelligent Controller (EIC) nationally this year, after field deployments of autonomous rApps lifted downlink data radio bearer throughput by up to 8.9% and uplink UE throughput by up to 8%.

Closed-loop rApps delivered double-digit-adjacent throughput gains in live networks

The gains came from fully autonomous, 24/7 closed-loop optimization rApps, including the Advanced Antenna System (AAS) Cell shaper. Verizon and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) also demonstrated AI cell shaping of Massive MIMO and traffic steering in a live environment.

Verizon builds its own rApps on Ericsson's open platform

Verizon used the EIC as an open, standards-based platform to deploy rApps it designed itself. One of them is a Connected Mode Inter-Radio Access Technology Handover method from LTE to Standalone (SA) 5G for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) devices. It removes the need for manual intervention when handovers fail.

Matt Butz, Verizon's Vice President Network Planning, said the ability to self-develop rApps will bring “a new level of automation” ahead of 6G.

Three more Ericsson rApps enter testing as Verizon targets L4 autonomy

Verizon will test and deploy new rApps, both self-designed and from Ericsson. The Ericsson set includes the Cell Anomaly Detector, Root Cause Explainer and Anomaly General Optimizer. Verizon expects them to speed its progress toward L4 network autonomy.

EIC sits within an ecosystem of 100+ rApps

The EIC is part of the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), an open network management and automation platform for multi-vendor, multi-technology networks. EIAP supports all 4G and 5G Radio Access Networks and Ericsson core networks. Its ecosystem includes more than 100 available rApps from over 100 members.