11534 search results for Open RAN

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has left many people in the bleeding-edge web development world scratching their heads, after announcing web5 – a project from his new venture TBD, that aims to be a global standard for the next generation of the web.    Decentralized identity is the name of the game for TBD, it seems. TBD itself is a division of Block, the company formerly known as Square, which is an electronic payments specialist. Square took up so much of Dorsey’s time that he had to step away as Twitter CEO, and it recently rebranded to emphasize its focus on bitcoin – the cryptocurrency that it appears web5 is going to be use as a technical foundation.    The…

Operators that are deeply engaged in Open RAN development and trials are starting to share some concrete results from their work, which will build up over the course of the year into a valuable body of knowledge about the platform and its likely benefits and challenges.     On a recent webcast by the O-RAN Alliance, AT&T shared some progress on the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), probably the defining element of the architecture for operators that see O-RAN as a way to facilitate the migration to virtualized, automated networks, rather than merely as a way to introduce open fronthaul interfaces to enable multivendor physical network deployments.    AT&T was an early mover in RIC trials, having contributed some of the seed…

Alliances and initiatives related to 6G are starting to pile up, the latest being between Nokia and South Korean operator LG U+. That brings together representatives from two of the heavyweight economies in terms of mobile technology, Finland and Korea, though the pair will also be studying 5G-Advanced innovations.    The timing of all this 6G work – by industry bodies, government and academic groups, and individual companies – is predictable. Based on past cycles, the industry starts to think about the next full generation just about when the current one enters the ‘Advanced’ stage (as with HSPA in 3G or LTE-Advanced in 4G). And while it may seem premature to talk about 6G, it is only eight years from…

Network sharing agreements, designed to save cost and accelerate network roll-outs, have become commonplace in passive networks and are starting to become more acceptable to operators in the active RAN, where allowed by regulators. Deals are often driven initially by the need to reduce the cost of covering rural or remote communities, but may also be sparked when one operator has access to a unique and valuable piece of spectrum.     In the case of T-Mobile USA, that situation led it actually to acquire Sprint, for its plentiful 2.5 GHz 5G-suitable airwaves, but in other cases, sharing agreements open up a key band to multiple operators.    This has been seen in Russia (see separate item) and in China, where…

With the Russian economy under intense pressure as a result of the Ukraine war and its ripple effects, the country’s top four operators will be even more focused than most on cost efficiency. All four – MTS, Rostelecom, MegaFon and Vimpelcom/Beeline –  have now joined a new joint venture, called New Digital Solutions, which has been set up to devise a framework for freeing up more spectrum for 5G and use it on an efficient, potentially shared basis. Only Tele2 remains outside.    In particular, the venture aims to reverse a government decision to keep large parts of the 3.5 GHz band, occupied by federal agencies, back from 5G, by working with incumbents to agreee spectrum sharing and refarming frameworks.…

Rakuten Mobile of Japan may tout its innovative cloud-native network as the main way it will achieve a lower cost base than rivals, but some of its efficiencies actually stem from more physical and well-established methods. In particular, back in 2018, Rakuten struck deals with four Japanese energy utilities to reduce its energy costs and to reduce its need to build out all its own fiber. One of those partnerships was with Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and that has now been expanded into a full joint venture to cover base station deployment to boost 4G and 5G coverage.  Rakuten is targeting accelerated densification and better rural coverage from the move, as it struggles to build commercial success on its…

Chunghwa Telecom upgrades 5G base stations with Ericsson   Taiwan’s largest operator, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), has started upgrading its installed Ericsson base of midband Massive MIMO radios, aiming to increase energy efficiency and reduce weight where possible. This will take in around 2,000 cells, along with at least 150 Centralized-RAN sites.     Alex Chien, president of network technology at CHT, said: “Sustainability has always been at the heart of our business. We believe network modernization is a key enabler for a greener digital infrastructure as the foundation for the societal net-zero target.”    Chunghwa Telecom ended 2021 with over 12,000 5G stations across the whole country.    Only 11% of enterprises have fully automated test strategy, finds Keysight   Widespread interest in…

Dish Network is seeking to build an Open RAN ecosystem around itself just as Rakuten has in Japan, though whether this will result in a platform that Dish will commercialize externally remains to be seen. Its high profile threatens to usurp AT&T’s traditional role as the perceived leader in driving open network initiatives in the USA, but both operators are working together to accelerate progress in the market.    Together with CableLabs, the R&D arm of the US cable providers, the two operators hosted O-RAN Alliance ‘PoCFests’ earlier this year. These provided testing and interoperability events, but claimed to go beyond mere plugfests by spawning full proof-of-concept (PoC) trials too.    These activities took place across four locations as part…

One of the objections to Open RAN from operators, especially in Europe, has been lack of support for legacy 2G/3G networks. This was raised as a concern by operators such as the UK’s BT last year, when many governments were developing huge enthusiasm for Open RAN as a way to diversify the supply chain while squeezing out Huawei.     But that enthusiasm was often ill-informed when it came to operator practicalities, such as the need to maintain legacy networks, often well into the 2030s, and to migrate to 5G SingleRAN architectures in future, to save energy and cost by running 2G or 3G along with 4G and 5G from one platform.    The concerns about 2G/3G support and backwards compatibility…

So far, the case for Open RAN as a platform for greenfield operators has been made by Rakuten Mobile and Dish Network, but a third new entrant is set to launch commercial services by the end of this year. This is Drillisch 1&1 in Germany, and its roll-out will be important to Open RAN in general, and Rakuten in particular, for two reasons. It will be the first major commercial implementation of the platform in Europe’s largest market, and it will be using the platform offered by Rakuten’s vendor arm, Symphony.    The fourth MNO in Germany is enabled by the purchase of spectrum by broadband operator Drillisch. 5G spectrum and licences were allocated to a new entrant as a…

For smart start-ups in an emerging area of technology such as Open RAN, the biggest challenge is often surviving the gap between initial excitement and large-scale deployments, especially when larger players rush in to capitalize on developments those start-ups have pioneered. For some, this leads to acquisition by one of the big players, as Irish integrator Aspire Technology has found, having been snapped up by NEC. For others, there may be a harder slog, and crises along the way, as small cell and O-RAN leading light Parallel Wireless is experiencing, with a sharp reduction in its workforce.    Aspire is a less well-known name in Open RAN than Parallel, but it has been involved in several deployments as an integrator…