A new purpose-built facility will house Ericsson’s Athlone R&D team of more than 1,300 people.

Swedish networking and telecoms player Ericsson has renewed its commitment to its Irish operations with plans to relocate its Athlone research and development (R&D) site to a new, purpose-built facility on the IDA Ireland campus in the town.

Having started as a manufacturing site back in 1974, Athlone has become one of Ericsson’s most important R&D locations globally, Denis Dullea told us last year on the Leader’s Room podcast. Dullea is head of RAN (radio access network) systems and product security at Ericsson’s Athlone site.

Today, the Athlone site employs more than 1,300 people who work on the design and delivery of advanced network solutions used by service providers in more than 180 countries.

The move is good news for the Irish Government, which continues to promote Ireland’s position as a global destination for R&D and technology innovation. Back in 2025, Ericsson announced a three-year, €200m R&D investment programme in Athlone, supported by IDA Ireland, to advance open, programmable and intelligent network capabilities.

“I warmly welcome Ericsson’s continued commitment to Athlone, with the relocation of its R&D centre to a new local site,” said Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD, who was in Athlone for the announcement. “This investment reflects the confidence that leading international companies have in Ireland’s business environment, skilled talent base, and innovation ecosystem.

“This announcement further cements the Athlone site’s position as a centre of excellence for advanced research and development with global impact.”

“Ericsson’s new Athlone facility is a significant milestone in our longstanding partnership with Ireland,” said Jenny Lindqvist, senior vice-president and head of business area cloud software and services at Ericsson. “This investment will empower our teams to develop and deliver AI-enabled software and autonomous network solutions for customers globally. Our commitment to Athlone reflects the strength of Ireland’s talent, collaborative innovation environment and our shared ambition to lead the future of secure and intelligent networks.”

A key focus in Athlone is on further developing the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, as well as its network powered ‘rApps’, which are applications that automate radio access network management. The platform aims to create the next phase of network and automation features by leveraging AI, machine learning and analytics.

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