UScellular modernizes security to deliver seamless, scalable and high-performing 5G services to millions of customers

SUMMARY

UScellular, the fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S., delivers mobile and fixed connectivity to five million customers. As adoption of 5G grew and mobile networks faced rising demand, UScellular knew it needed to strengthen the core of its infrastructure.

That meant investing in a security architecture capable of scaling with exponential traffic growth—while safeguarding user data and enabling high availability. UScellular began evaluating new partners and platforms to secure its LTE and 5G Gi-LAN environments, seeking not just best-in- class performance, but a leading-edge platform that could grow into the next era of connectivity, including 6G.

RESULTS

High throughput

Supports 1.2 Tbps+ of traffic across 5G and LTE environments.

Increased threat prevention

Inline threat mitigation at scale for consumer and enterprise connectivity.

Streamlined operations

Centralized management with Panorama enables consistent, efficient 5G network security.

challenges

As UScellular expanded its 5G footprint and mobile data consumption continued to surge, the company faced new challenges around performance, visibility and resilience.

Michael Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, led efforts to modernize security infrastructure to meet the moment. “All the benefits that come with 5G also come with a larger attack surface area for hackers,” he notes. “We work really hard to make sure that we design security upfront as we deploy the technology.” The company’s goals in security modernization included:

Support increasing demand for LTE and 5G traffic with scalable, high-throughput firewalls.
Ensure a seamless, secure experience for customers across consumer and business segments.
Improve visibility and threat mitigation across Gi-LAN environments.
Transition away from legacy vendors and consolidate to a trusted platform.

“We provide connectivity and trust. Customers expect us to protect their information at all times, and we take that responsibility seriously.”

Michael Irizarry

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer UScellular

SOLUTIONS

A resilient, scalable platform for 5G security: UScellular conducted a rigorous review to select its next security partner. It was familiar with Palo Alto Networks, having used Next-Generation Firewalls in its data centers. The company saw compelling value in extending the network security platform into its 5G networks, driving greater consistency and operational efficiency.“One of the things that attracted us to Palo Alto was not only the superiority of the technology and the roadmap, but also the collaborative nature of the culture and the partnership,” says Irizarry. PA-7080 Next-Generation Hardware Firewalls offered a strong combination of throughput, advanced threat mitigation and deep visibility—essential to securing the mobile network edge.

Optimizing for growth: UScellular deployed dual PA-7080s across four locations—Chicago, San Jose, Atlanta and Ashburn. Each site runs multiple virtual systems (VSYS) to ensure high availability and segmented traffic control. With the ability to handle more than 1.2 Tbps of traffic, the infrastructure is built for scalability. “We needed a product that could scale reliably and offer high performance, especially under attack,” says Irizarry. “Palo Alto Networks delivered on both.”

Seamless implementation, simplified operations: The company accelerated deployment by leveraging Quickstart services from the Palo Alto Networks Professional Services team. Using lessons learned from a proof of concept (POC), Professional Services created an automated rollout playbook. This reduced complexity and accelerated deployment across multiple locations. UScellular also deployed Panorama to provide centralized management for all firewall environments, enabling consistent policy enforcement and easing the burden on Network and Security teams.

A partner in every sense: UScellular found that having consistent support and collaboration with Palo Alto Networks experts played a big role in meeting its vision for modernization. “Palo Alto Networks stepped up to make the transition from our old vendor seamless. And that’s really important,” says Irizarry. “Frankly, that drove one of the main reasons we selected Palo Alto Networks over other solution providers.”