Telefónica / O2 this week announced that it is the first German network operator to rely on Open RAN in live operation of its mobile network.
In a pilot phase, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 is converting three O2 mobile sites in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria. From fall 2021, the company plans to roll out the new technology on a larger scale in the O2 network.
In the city of Landsberg am Lech, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 has currently connected one base station to the Open RAN, others are prepared and will follow soon. In this way, O2 is integrating more and more customers into the pilot project step by step. The way in which customers use the network will in turn enable Telefónica engineers to draw conclusions about further optimization possibilities for the Open RAN technology.
NEC is one of the companies involved in the global development of Open RAN. Due to its extensive Open RAN expertise, Telefónica / O2 has chosen NEC as a partner for the pilot project in the O2 network in the Landsberg area. NEC will coordinate the setup and operation of the Open RAN at the Landsberg cellular sites, as well as combine the individual hardware assemblies and software from other participating companies such as Dell, Intel, Altiostar, Xilinx, Red Hat, GigaTera and Supermicro into a complete system. photos
Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland / O2
Our goal is to offer our customers the most technologically advanced and best network. With Open RAN, we are focusing on the future and are technological frontrunners in Germany. In addition, Open RAN offers us maximum flexibility in deployment and also in the subsequent replacement of system-critical components.
Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefónica Deutschland / O2
We were the first network operator to take the innovative future technology Open RAN out of the lab and into the live mobile network. The use of Open RAN is a central factor in the virtualization of our O2 network, which we launched with the new 5G core network.
