Spanish telecom major Telefonica has claimed to have successfully conducted an open RAN trial in the UK, media reports said. The telecom major has used Japan’s NEC for the development.
Altiostar, the US-based company has provided the RAN software, while companies such as GigaTera Communications and Supermicro were also part of the development. Telefonica holds a stake in Altiostar.
The nascent technology (open RAN) trial was successful because of NEC, which has helped to adapt itself to the company’s network requirements in the UK. The NEC coordinated the overall design of the system.
The Global Open RAN Center of Excellence in the UK has recently carried out an end-to-end testing and interoperability verification. Furthermore, Telefonica has announced plans for the NEC-led open RAN trial a year ago focusing on enhancing the network for the people residing in rural areas including dense urban areas. Earlier, Telefonica showcased its RAN to non-traditional RAN partners including companies such as Wavemobile, Dense Air, Mavenir and Real Wireless. Last December, the company piloted the integration and operation of open RAN infrastructure from Ireland-based Vilicom.
The telecom major also launched its operations in Germany last month across three sites in the Bavarian town of Landsberg am Lech and aims to use open RAN at about 1000 of its mobile sites. These are the companies which are the sole suppliers of Open RAN: Xilinx, Altiostar, Dell, GigaTera, Intel, Red Hat and Supermicro.
Telefonica is trying to become one of the best telecom providers in the global stage.