A proof-of-concept OpenRAN trial that MTN Group and Accenture co-developed has ended. Accenture said on Wednesday that the solution was tested on MTN’s networks in Nigeria and South Africa.
Before the live site deployment, an early trial phase investigating OpenRAN solutions was conducted at MTN South Africa’s lab, according to Nitesh Singh, an Accenture leader in communication, media, and technology.
“This project allowed us to collaborate with MTN to build the next-generation network that will redefine mobile communications in South Africa and throughout the continent and to share our experience with them through the Rakuten communications platform.”
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OpenRAN technology to the rescue
Operators worldwide are experimenting with OpenRAN architectures because they might lower costs by preventing vendor lock-in and helping decouple the components in the network segments that connect a user’s device to the closest tower.
The O-RAN Alliance and the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) are the primary industry organisations producing OpenRAN standards.
Founded by AT&T, Orange, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, and Deutsche Telekom, the O-RAN Alliance has the most extensive collection of OpenRAN standards on the market.
Operators, service providers, technology partners, systems integrators, and other interested parties, including Facebook and Intel, are members of the Telecom Infra Project.
Following accusations by US officials that Chinese radio equipment firm Huawei installs backdoors and spyware into its networking kit—allegations the company has vehemently denied—openRAN technology has seen a considerable increase in investment in the US. Open standards in the access network are more critical now that Huawei equipment is prohibited from being used on US and EU mobile networks.
“MTN is dedicated to investigating cutting-edge technical solutions to lower expenses and provide our clients more value. The MTN Group Amith Maharaj technology officer stated, “We are confident that in time, OpenRAN holds the potential to allow us to lower the total cost of ownership… and unlock the benefits of cloud-native deployments with greater flexibility and scalability.”
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More about OpenRAN
The OpenRAN (Open Radio Access Network) project aims to create a standardised and open architecture for radio access networks (RANs), an essential part of mobile networks. OpenRAN seeks to advance innovation and competition in the RAN industry, lower costs and boost productivity, enhance network security and performance, and provide more customisation and flexibility.
Open Radio Access Networks (OpenRANs) are an advancement in the design of the wirelessly connecting portion of a telecommunications network, or, to put it another way, the bit that sits between your smartphone and the closest base station. The fundamental tenet of OpenRAN is standardising and separating the RAN’s components to make them interchangeable and vendor-neutral.