Telefonica Germany had previously said it aimed to deploy pure 5G O-RAN mini-radio cells in Munich later in the year
German telco O2/Telefónica Germany and Japanese tech company NEC announced the launch of what they claim to be the first open- and virtual-RAN-architecture-based small cells in Germany.
In a release, NEC said that the service has initially launched in the city center of Munich to enhance the customer experience by providing increased capacity to the existing mobile network in this urban area.
In this German deployment, NEC said that the flexibility of Open-RAN is leveraged through the use of small cells to improve capacity in dense, urban areas. NEC integrated a multi-vendor architecture that includes Airspan Networks’ Airspeed plug-and-play solution and Rakuten Symphony’s Open vRAN software for O2/Telefónica Germany’s small cells to complement the existing multi-vendor based macro cells in its network.
The Japanese company also said that the adoption of O-RAN small cells combined with macro cells will pave the way for 5G densification, which will be beneficial in Germany, where multiple industries and enterprises are seeking ways to utilize cellular service functionalities in a particular area or in shared physical spaces.
O2/Telefónica Germany and NEC said they will continue their collaboration leveraging innovative O-RAN technologies, as well as automation, to validate and deploy advanced networks.
“We are proud to have launched Germany’s first small cells built on innovative Open RAN technologies that help to complete the delivery of granular, high-quality connectivity in dense urban areas,” said Matthias Sauder, director of mobile access and transport at O2/Telefónica Germany. “NEC became our partner in this innovative project, with its underlying technological background and experiences of Open RAN technologies.”
“The potential of Open RAN technologies in the 5G era is infinite,” said Shigeru Okuya, SVP of NEC. “NEC is honored to be the strategic partner to O2/Telefónica Germany, jointly leading the industry with practical and effective use cases that prove the value of Open RAN.”
In January, O2/Telefónica Germany activated the first mini-radio cells with O-RAN in Munich. The telco said that these mini-radio cells will provide O2 customers with even more capacity and higher bandwidth at busy locations in the city. The company also said it aimed to deploy pure 5G O-RAN mini-radio cells in Munich later in the year.
In the near future, O2/Telefónica said it will also use the small cells for targeted 5G coverage, with focus on particularly busy locations in German city centers, such as very busy squares, shopping streets or public transport stops.
The telco, controlled by Spanish telco Telefonica, previously said it expects to reach 50% of the country’s population with its 5G service by the end of 2022.
The German carrier said that the 5G expansion will be chiefly based on the 3.6 GHz spectrum and will require an investment of around 4 billion euros ($4.55 billion) until the end of 2022.
O2/Telefonica Deutschland had said it will also deploy new, longer-range frequencies in the coming months to increasingly cover rural regions with 5G. This includes 5G on 700 MHz as well as the deployment of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing technology (DSS), which combines 4G and 5G.
