Kyndryl has signed a strategic partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), that will see the company work with HPE's Athonet unit to develop and deliver LTE and private 5G services.

The IT services provider made the announcement this week during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Separately, Kyndryl also launched a unified, multi-IMSI SIM service designed to provide improved private LTE/5G connectivity across industrial environments to mobile devices.

The deal with HPE extends an existing partnership which allows Kyndryl clients to access HPE's Aruba portfolio of Wi-Fi 6 solutions.

HPE acquired Italian-based Athonet just over a year ago, as part of its plans to expand its connected cloud-to-Edge offering.

The tie-up with HPE means that Kyndryl's private wireless network customers will be able to leverage Kyndryl Bridge, the company's open-integration technology services platform.

Usage of Kyndryl Bridge means customers can automate IT infrastructure, reduce the risk of network downtime, and improve the mean time to repair.

"Adding the private LTE/5G service to our joint capabilities will enable us to capture new markets and customers, doing what we do best together to help large, global enterprises modernize, innovate, and secure their businesses," said Paul Savill, global network and Edge computing practice leader at Kyndryl.

The company also launched its multi-IMSI SIM service, designed for industrial environments.

Kyndryl claims the service, which is data only, can reach more than 150 countries through global carriers.

The key feature of the service is that customers can switch between LTE/5G and public mobile networks for optimal connectivity performance and cost management.

In the event there's a network outage, Kyndryl unified SIM will automatically switch between private and public wireless networks.