Open RAN investments continue apace
It’s rare in telco operations that a disruptive technology or concept appears and quickly gathers momentum, but the Open RAN movement is certainly snowballing. And although constructing the ecosystems and the commercial arrangements around Open RAN is taking some time, the testbed announcements are coming thick and fast.
Open RAN investments continue apace
It’s rare in telco operations that a disruptive technology or concept appears and quickly gathers momentum, but the Open RAN movement is certainly snowballing. And although constructing the ecosystems and the commercial arrangements around Open RAN is taking some time, the testbed announcements are coming thick and fast. In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure has said it will provide 300 million Euros over several years to support “innovative companies in the development and testing of new, software-controlled network technologies (Open RAN) in Germany and to support its manufacturing industry. The ministry has announced three initial projects. The most funding -- 17 million Euros – is for an Open RAN lab consortium that is led by Deutsche Telekom and also includes Telefonica Germany. A further 11.5 million Euros will go into the set up of two Open RAN cities, one by Vodafone and another by Deutsche Telekom. And 2.5 million euros will help fund an Open RAN Ecosystem backed by Nokia Solutions and Networks GMBH & Co KG. In France, meanwhile, Orange has opened an Open RAN Integration Center, where companies can test and validate their Open RAN products and services. “We want to accelerate the development of an open, intelligent, cloud-based RAN and create a rich Open RAN ecosystem in Europe. From 2025 onwards, our ambition is to deploy only Open RAN equipment across Europe." according to Michaël Trabbia, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Orange in a media release. Both moves are indicative of the cloud IT era in which we’re now living, where replacement methods for providing core connectivity functions can be conceived, developed and deployed in a very short timeframe. This week’s announcement from the German Digital Infrastructure Ministry is especially interesting because it is government money being pumped into the market to stimulate advancement of Open RAN for industrial applications. All 5G networks are not created equal, so the German government is essentially saying that advancing the capabilities of the particular flavor of 5G available within Germany will have a positive impact on the country’s abilities as an industrial and technology nation. Open RAN makes sense in these industrial settings as the radio environment can require very unique mixed macro and small cell deployments to overcome RF propagation issues on site and challenges around electromagnetic interference. Having an ecosystem of specialist suppliers to address these challenges seems like a great idea on paper, but the real test for Open RAN will be in the integration and interoperability of the IT and data.