Ericsson, Spirent Communications, Accenture and Avanade joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab, adding new expertise to the applied innovation ecosystem which helps start-ups develop use cases for the technology.

The 5G Innovation Lab brings corporations, academia and government institutions together with start-ups to develop use cases for various industries. Its first application development field launched in February, covering the agriculture industry.

It stated Accenture and Avenade had joined as founding partners, with Ericsson and Spirent becoming corporate partners. The additions expand “the lab’s technical and development capabilities in support of its growing ecosystem of start-ups”, which today number 47.

Accenture will provide business and technology assets, focusing on speeding revenue creation around 5G in targeted industries. MD Tejas Rao said the positive impact of 5G on one industry “creates positive and wider benefits across the economy”.

Avanade will provide a technical architecture, and support for standards development and field deployment covering edge compute solutions using the Microsoft cloud architecture.

Ericsson will combine its work at the 5G Open Innovation Lab with its own Global Innovation Labs and its D-15 Labs. One focus will be on using the technology to underpin use of AI and IoT in the manufacturing, energy and utilities industries.

Paul Keane, head of enterprise and emerging business for Ericsson North America, explained the latest research would focus on dedicated 5G networks “and innovative edge applications”.

Spirent’s contribution is its 5G Digital Twin, an approach replicating a physical network using software employed to automate testing and support continuous innovation and development.

New companies typically participate in 12-week programmes with specific goals.

The companies join Amdocs, Dell Technologies, Intel, T-Mobile US, Microsoft F5 Networks and VMware on the 5G Open Innovation Labs list of partners.