Assessment of Open Ran: Difference between revisions

Although Vodafone is one of the pioneers of Open RAN, it only recently started deploying it in commercial areas. Vodafone has been testing Open Ran for over five years<ref>https://www.parallelwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/Parallel-Wireless-e-Book-Everything-You-Need-to-Know-about-Open-RAN.pdf<nowiki/>page.56</ref>. In 2019, it became the first operator to move Open Ran from the lab to the rural areas of South Africa and Turkey. That, too, became a success, and at the end of 2019, its CEO Nick Read said, “We are pleased with trials of OpenRAN and are ready to fast track it into Europe as we seek to actively expand our vendor ecosystem. OpenRAN improves the network economics enabling us to reach more people in rural communities and that supports our goal to build digital societies in which no-one is left behind.” In the same year also, Vodafone initiated Open Ran trials in the UK<ref>https://www.vodafone.com/news/technology-news/vodafone-pioneers-innovative-network-tech-to-increase-suppliers-and-extend-rural-internet-access</ref>. In January 2022, the company was able to switch to live deployment in Bath, Somerset, one of the 2,500 sites where Vodafone plans to deploy Open Ran at scale<ref>https://www.vodafone.com/news/technology/5g-open-ran-first-uk-site</ref>. It now plans to have 30% of its European base stations running on Open RAN by 2030<ref>https://www.vodafone.com/news/technology/vodafone-nokia-partner-advance-open-ran-ecosystem-europe</ref>.   

Telefonica is another operator that has been championing Open RAN deployments for over five years. In fact, in 2018, it launched Internet para Todos(IpT), a project aimed at connecting over 100 million unconnected individuals in Latin America(LATAM) region with the internet. The IpT is considered one of the largest Open Ran deployments in the world<ref>https://www.parallelwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/Parallel-Wireless-e-Book-Everything-You-Need-to-Know-about-Open-RAN.pdf<nowiki/>page.58,51</ref>. But despite its active role in Open Ran movements, Telefonica only recently started deploying it in a commercial setting. Last year, Telefonica said that beginning in 2022, it will deploy Open RAN in 800 commercial sites across its four main operating countries. Telefonica plans to have 50% of the new sites constructed between 2022 and 2025 based on Open RAN<ref>https://the-mobile-network.com/2021/09/telefonica-hands-nec-wider-role-in-open-ran-rollout/</ref>.

In 2020, Etisalat announced that it would deploy Open vRAN across the UAE to reap the new architecture's benefits. Its senior vice president, Saeed Al Zarouni, had said, "Deploying the open vRAN is vital in enabling digital transformation aimed at increasing efficiencies and the utilization of AI [artificial intelligence]."<ref>https://www.lightreading.com/5g/etisalat-to-build-open-ran-across-uae/d/d-id/756571</ref> This was followed by several Open RAN tests in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia<ref>https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/etisalat-taps-parallel-wireless-for-open-ran-trials</ref>. By March 2021, Etisalat had contracted Parallel Wireless, Intel, and Supermicro to replace its existing 2G, 3G, and 4G network in Afghanistan with Open RAN systems<ref>https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/etisalat-to-bring-open-ran-to-afghanistan/</ref>. In March 2022, Etisalat and other middle eastern operators such as Zain Group, Mobily, and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) launched the Middle East Lab to help them deploy Open RAN in the Middle East<ref>https://telecominfraproject.com/middle-east-operators-establish-regions-first-open-ran-centralised-test-lab-in-collaboration-with-tip-and-intel/</ref>.

Bharti Airtel is one of the pioneers of the O-RAN Alliance. In fact, it holds a board seat in the movement. Bharti Airtel was the first operator to deploy virtual 4G Open RAN trials across multiple cities in India<ref>https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/altiostar-deploys-open-vran-for-india-s-bharti-airtel</ref>. The deployment covered both small cells and macro sites. In April 2022, Bharti Airtel announced that it had achieved a trial speed of 1Gbps in its cloud-based open RAN architecture<ref>https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/29xf59u43i9srykhu94ao/news/airtel-achieves-1gbps-in-indian-5g-open-ran-cloud-trials</ref>. It has deployed 5G services in 8 cities and plans to cover 50 to 60 cities in India by March 2023. Its CTO, Randeep Sekhon, said, “Open RAN’s readiness to serve a larger scale will happen towards the end of 2023 because we want the total cost of ownership to come down.”<ref>https://disruptive.asia/airtel-says-its-open-ran-5g-strategy-is-on-schedule/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=airtel-says-its-open-ran-5g-strategy-is-on-schedule#:~:text=Bharti%20Airtel%20says%20that%20it,end%20of%20fiscal%2Dyear%202023.</ref>

=== 8. Orange ===

Orange was one of the founders of the O-RAN Alliance<ref>https://www.parallelwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/Parallel-Wireless-e-Book-Everything-You-Need-to-Know-about-Open-RAN.pdf<nowiki/>page.51</ref>. However, its planned Open-Ran is still in the trial phase. It began trials in 2020 in the Central Africa Republic<ref>https://www.rcrwireless.com/20200721/open_ran/orange-takes-open-ran-to-cnetral-african-republic</ref>. In June 2021, it launched a two-year trial of what it considers Europe's first 5G standalone network. The network will incorporate Open RAN, cloud, and multi-vendor deployments<ref>https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/top-three/orange-claims-cloud-native-5g-sa-european-first/</ref>. Five months later, it launched its own Open Ran integration center, which is intended to help operators accelerate the deployment of Open RAN<ref>https://newsroom.orange.com/orange-inaugurates-the-first-laboratory-in-france-dedicated-to-open-ran-technology/</ref>.