The deployment will take place in the Northamptonshire region.
Rakuten Symphony, which provides B2B services for the mobile telco industry has announced that its commercial open RAN site is entering the field phase. The site will be used by UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2.
Rakuten says the commercial launch follows a successful Open RAN lab trial conducted on Virgin Media O2’s network with Japanes equipment vendor NEC and other ecosystem partners. Rakuten says its deployment aligns with the UK government’s efforts to diversify telecom supply chains.
“We are strong believers in the power of diverse Open RAN ecosystems and in NEC, we have a partner that really shares our view. Its industry-leading system integration capabilities are integral in helping us deliver the mobile networks of the future, today,” says Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2.
