O2ToutsがRANトライアルの成功を開く

英国を拠点とするオペレーターO2は、ネットワークベンダーのNEC、Altiostar、GigaTera Communications、Supermicroとのオープン無線アクセスネットワークO-RANトライアルの成功を宣伝しました。このトライアルは、OpenRANエコシステムを前進させるためのオペレーターによる強力な推進力に基づいています。United Kingdom-based operator O2 touted the successful completion of an open radio access network O-RAN trial with its network vendors NEC, Altiostar, GigaTera Communications, and Supermicro. The trial builds on what has been a strong push by operators to advance the Open RAN ecosystem. NEC acted as the system integrator for the trial, laying out the overall design of the end-to-end test and that ran in its recently opened “Center for Excellence” in the U.K. The trial ran on O2’s core network in that lab environment. The trial builds on O-RAN work O2 announced last year, which included partnerships with vendors Mavenir, DenseAir, and WaveMobile. O2 is a division of Spain-based telecom giant Telefónica, which also tapped NEC as the system integrator for O-RAN work implemented by its German operations. O2 UK’s parent company Telefónica was one of four major operators in Europe that last month threw their support behind open RAN technology. The telecom giant joined Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, France’s Orange, and U.K.-based Vodafone Group in stating that they will work with the O-RAN Alliance, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and European and country-specific policymakers to help open RAN reach “competitive parity with traditional RAN solutions.” The operators signed an agreement to individually and jointly commit to deploy the technology, which separates hardware from software in telecommunications networks with open interfaces. Mobile carriers are especially interested in open RAN because it is framed as an alternative to the proprietary nature of RAN and the effective monopoly enjoyed by a trio of global RAN suppliers. Telefónica has been the most specific of those operators in stating its actual deployment plans, noting that it will transition at least half of the markets it serves to open RAN by 2025. That operator push has slowly encouraged traditional telecom vendors to adopt the open RAN model, which some predict could be dominated by hyperscale giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.