If the rollout of 5G technology is a game of two halves, as it is often described, as network technologies are deployed and upgraded in global 5G systems, and as a long-tail of carrier firms catches up with the leading pack, then the next phase will make a star of open RAN. So says Qualcomm Technologies, in discussion with RCR Wireless at MWC 2025, where it proclaims recent open RAN wins for its Dragonwing cellular infrastructure portfolio with Viettel Group and NTT DOCOMO, the largest 5G operators in Vietnam and Japan, respectively.
Indeed, with the right technology platform, open RAN is ready to outrun traditional RAN in new 5G networks, it says.
The Viettel project, announced late last year, is a full open RAN massive MIMO deployment, already live in the network. It uses the US firm’s Dragonwing QRU100 platform in the radio units (RUs) and Dragonwing X100 accelerator cards in the virtualized distributed units (DUs); both are geared for open RAN systems, and work in the integrated RU/DU setup to streamline compute-intensive tasks. Qualcomm worked with Viettel Group’s research division, Viettel High Technology Industries (VHT), on the development and integration of the RU and DU solutions.
The deployments with Viettel will scale to “thousands of sites this year”, says Gerardo Giaretta, vice president of product management at Qualcomm. Meanwhile, the work with NTT DOCOMO uses the Dragonwing X100 accelerator card in a virtualized DU from NEC, and runs on an HPE ProLiant DL110 server. The system will be rolled-out across its network in Japan. The deal, which has followed extensive testing, is a feather in the cap, too, for both his firm and the whole ecosystem, just because NTT DOCOMO is “recognized as a hard network to get into”, remarks Giaretta.
And Qualcomm’s confidence is high not only because of the regional heft of these operator brands, but because of their different profiles. Giaretta explains: “We have two great deployments, last year and this year – with Viettel in Vietnam and NTT DOCOMO in Japan… [They are] important because they show open RAN is useful and deployed in competitive markets – whether they are competitive from a cost perspective like in Vietnam or from a performance perspective like in Japan. It is exciting to move from development to interoperability to commercialization, finally.”
These deals are harbingers of a strong second-half display, as open RAN makes its way into 5G systems. OREX SAI, a venture between NTT DOCOMO and NEC, has verified the whole open RAN bundle for “global deployments” by other operators, observes Giaretta. Hanoi-headquartered Viettel has operations elsewhere variously in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa. “So this is just the start,” he says. “It is planning to take that platform and deploy [it] elsewhere.” The Viettel model, focused on developing markets, holds real value for open RAN, he says.
“It is different from going into a developed country where 5G has been deployed for four years, and there are fewer sites available… [Operators in] these developing countries [are interested] to be at the edge of technology progress – maybe more than [those in] developed countries. So we see great growth opportunities – tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of sites in the next couple of years… We are also working with other operators and other vendors which are not public yet. So this is a turning point [for open RAN] over the next couple of years.”
It seems like the technological impediments to open RAN are falling away, and that what remains is just a business problem – is how RCR Wireless puts it to Giaretta on the showfloor at MWC. He responds: “It is an ecosystem problem more than anything. The open RAN specification is mature enough, with and without massive MIMO. Solutions with our silicon technology… give a performance that is equivalent if not superior to traditional RAN. So it is just about operators getting used to the process and getting convinced about the new ecosystem and development.”
