TIM's "Beyond Connectivity" program focuses bringing AI and cloud to bear on network operations
Major European operators in January signed a memorandum of understanding outlining their multi-year commitment to deploy Open RAN technologies throughout their coverage areas. Now Italy's TIM has announced it will work...
U.K. telco Vodafone has announced the launch of an Open RAN (O-RAN) test and validation laboratory on its Newbury campus, the operator said in a statement.
The operator said that the new lab will be the first dedicated research and development facility for O-RAN in...
Open RAN vendors are racing to catch up with incumbent Single radio access network (SRAN) vendors when it comes to providing a complete, comprehensive offer. Going forward, Open RAN will be one of the foundations for building RAN, and as such, the new mainstream....
Massive MIMO solutions set for Q4 availability
The availability of Open RAN-compatible massive MIMO radios has been on operator wish lists for some time as they look to bring disaggregated radio access network kit into more demanding, urban deployments. Cloud-native network specialist Mavenir this week...
Performance, end-to-end responsibility among Open RAN concerns expressed by Huawei Carrier Business Group CTO
Of the big three network infrastructure vendors, Nokia has been the most adaptive in regard to Open RAN while Ericsson, an active member of the O-RAN Alliance, is also making product...
Etisalat signed an MoU with Rakuten Communications Platform for cloud-native, Open RAN support
Etisalat, following a joint announcement with Rakuten Communications Platform to develop a reference design for cloud-native, Open RAN networks, is furthering its commitment to disaggregation of the radio access network through a...
Wireless backhaul provider Ceragon Networks says it has been selected by Brazilian carrier TIM to participate in the joint work being carried out with the Telecom Infra-Project (TIP) and the National Telecommunication Institute (INATEL) to test providers for 5G Open RAN (O-RAN).
The open field...
Telefónica brand Movistar using Open RAN in Puerto Madryn, Argentina
One of the persistent questions related to Open RAN is whether the shift from integrated radio stacks to multi-vendor Open RAN kit presents a trade off between lower capex with increased system integration costs. With...
Japanese mobile service provider NTT DoCoMo has selected Samsung as a 5G network solution provider. Samsung will specifically support the carrier’s next phase of its Open RAN development.
The agreement represents the first time that Samsung has directly supplied 5G kit to NTT DoCoMo. Last...
Etisalat signs memorandum of understanding to use Rakuten Communications Platform for cloud-native, Open RAN networks
Last week Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) tapped Airspan as a 4G and 5G hardware/software vendor, and this week RCP announced it's working with Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat to develop a "reference...
Shortly after LTE reached maturity, service providers started facing new challenges to meet customer demand for high capacity and “always-on” connectivity with quick set-up and transition time, spurred by diverse new applications and extremely high data usage by subscribers. To address some of these...
SONIC program launches with eight Open RAN vendors and integration specialists
Open RAN is gaining traction in the U.K. with Vodafone trialing out disaggregated radio stacks in rural parts of its network and now, a government-back program is gearing up to focus on testing hardware/software...
Indian telecommunications operator Bharti Airtel and Qualcomm Technologies announced a collaboration for accelerating 5G development in India.
Recently, Airtel became India’s first telco to demonstrate 5G over a live commercial network in the city of Hyderabad.
Through Airtel’s network vendors and device partners, Airtel will utilize...
An Open RAN conversation with Eng Wei Koo, Director of Technology, 5G Solutions, Keysight Technologies
With greenfield builds in Japan and the U.S., and a major commitment from European operators, Open RAN is poised to have a meaningful impact on the way networks are bought...
2020 was the year Open RAN became mainstream. As more operators started to trial and deploy the technology across the globe and as more radio, server, and software vendors joined the ecosystem, it became apparent that disaggregation of previously tightly coupled radio, hardware, and...
Finnish vendor Nokia announced a partnership with Brazil’s Telecommunications Research and Development Center (CPQD), which is an independent government-affiliated research body, to jointly develop applications and solutions based on the Open RAN-compliant near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC).
In a release, Nokia said that the partnership...
Adding intelligence to the radio access network is the focal point of AI and ML adoption by telecom operators and their vendors. And given the increases in traffic and complexity brought about by the advent of 5G, alongside the move from proprietary to virtualized/cloud-native...
Xilinx and Fujitsu are coming together to support a more rapid rollout of 5G in the United States. The partnership, which will involve Xilinx incorporating its UltraScale+ technology into Fujitsu’s O-RAN 5G radio units (O-RUs), will allow for the interoperability between baseband and radio...
Italian operator TIM joined an initiative recently announced by European carriers Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone Group to promote Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) technology for the implementation of next-generation mobile networks, the telco said in a release.
In January, the four carriers...
Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo agreed to cooperate with 12 companies to move toward a “5G Open RAN Ecosystem,” with the objective to globally accelerate open radio access networks (O-RAN).
The firms that will cooperate with the Japanese telco are Dell Technologies Japan, Fujitsu Limited, Intel...
According to GSMA, 4G accounted for 52% of mobile connections in 2019 and will increase to 56% by 2025; meanwhile, 5G will roughly take 20% share.Unlike the moderate pace in the access side, RAN (Radio Access Network) architecture migration is accelerating and driven by...
The promise of Open RAN rests, in part, on the concept that through the virtualizing and disaggregation of Radio Access Network components and software, new players and best-of-breed solutions will emerge that otherwise wouldn't get much oxygen in an atmosphere dominated by a handful...
As O2 continues to shake out the role of Open RAN in both sparsely populated and dense urban areas, it's latest trial tapped Japan's NEC as system integrator and, according to COO Derek McManus, is the latest step in "transform our network through collaboration...
The 5G era is representative of many things – innovative new services, unprecedented speeds, new monetization opportunities and the spread of high-speed connectivity to previously untouched geographies. Yet, unlocking all this potential has been a challenge for service providers, and while the obstacles seem...
Will operator commitment to Open RAN catalyze vendor R&D?
European operators Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone are joining forces to support the rollout of Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) in future mobile networks across Europe.
The four carriers signed a memorandum of understanding...
