In a stride toward technological innovation, Zain Kuwait, a leading technology innovator in Kuwait, and Parallel Wireless, a frontrunner in Open RAN hardware-agnostic solutions, announced on Wednesday the successful completion of a groundbreaking 5G Standalone (SA) Proof of Concept (POC).
This achievement underscores Zain’s commitment to technological advancement and strengthens Kuwait’s position as a global ICT leader.
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Reaching new heights in 5G performance
The Proof of Concept, centred on Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), showcased download speeds exceeding 1.3 Gbps. According to the partners, this surpasses Zain’s performance benchmark and marks one of the highest achievements for Open RAN technology.
Daaij Al-Oud, Zain Kuwait’s Chief Technology Officer, expressed enthusiasm about Open RAN’s potential, stating, “We are excited about the potential of Open RAN to transform the future of 5G networks.”
Parallel Wireless showcased its GreenRAN™ hardware-agnostic technology during the trial, leveraging AMD EPYC™ CPUs to achieve more than 35 percent energy savings compared to legacy benchmarks.
The POC also demonstrated seamless operation across SUSE and AWS Kubernetes platforms, highlighting deployment flexibility and interoperability, and validated CU-DU separation based on ORAN Split Option 2, enhancing network scalability and operational efficiency.
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Pushing boundaries in sustainable 5G
The collaboration also emphasised energy efficiency. According to Parallel Wireless, the trial achieved over 35 percent energy savings compared to legacy benchmarks by leveraging AMD EPYC CPUs.
Al-Oud added that saving more than 35 per cent of power consumption supports Zain’s sustainability strategy and contributes to their net-zero goal by 2050.
METCO played a crucial role in the POC’s execution, from initiating discussions to overseeing project management and ensuring smooth collaboration.
Bassem A. Jalil, Vice Chairman and CEO of METCO noted that their expert team provided critical on-ground support, enabling the seamless execution of the trial and allowing Parallel Wireless to showcase its innovative Open RAN technology.
Steve Papa, CEO and Founder of Parallel Wireless stated, “This proof of concept demonstrates our leadership in hardware-agnostic design and highlights the real-world potential of Open RAN as a platform for innovation”.