{
  "id": 14402509,
  "title": "Ericsson recommits to Athlone with new purpose-built R&D facility",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/ericsson-recommits-to-athlone-with-new-purpose-built-r-d-facility",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-14T08:15:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Silicon Republic",
    "slug": "silicon-republic",
    "url": "https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/ericsson-recommits-to-athlone-with-new-purpose-built-rd-facility"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ericsson reaffirms its dedication to its Athlone Research and Development (R&D) center in Ireland, unveiling an exclusively designed facility to accommodate over 1,300 employees, primarily engineers. Established in 1974 as a manufacturing plant, Athlone has evolved into one of Ericsson's most significant R&D locations worldwide, with Denis Dullea, head of RAN Systems & Product Security, leading the team. Presently, the site contributes to the design and delivery of advanced network solutions for service providers across more than 180 nations.\n\nThis strategic move is a win for the Irish government, which consistently advocates Ireland's reputation as a global R&D and technology innovation hub. In 2025, Ericsson committed €200m to a three-year R&D program in Athlone, backed by IDA Ireland, aimed at enhancing open, programmable, and intelligent network capabilities. Speaking at the Athlone announcement, Peter Burke, TD, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism, and Employment, expressed his enthusiasm, highlighting the confidence international companies have in Ireland's business environment, talent pool, and innovation ecosystem.\n\nJenny Lindqvist, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Cloud Software and Services, emphasized that the new facility marks a significant milestone in Ericsson's long-standing partnership with Ireland. The investment will empower the team to develop and deliver AI-driven software and autonomous network solutions to customers globally, strengthening Ireland's talent, collaborative innovation environment, and shared ambition to lead secure and intelligent networks. A key emphasis at Athlone will be advancing the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform and its network-powered rApps, which aim to create the next phase of network and automation features leveraging AI, machine learning, and analytics.",
  "summary": "A new purpose-built facility will house Ericsson’s Athlone R&D team of more than 1,300 people, most of whom are engineers. Read more: Ericsson recommits to Athlone with new purpose-built R&D facility",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}