DRC – Vodafone is using technology from Parallel Wireless to deploy macro OpenRAN pilots in Turkey and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of an initiative to reduce deployment and maintenance costs for RAN platforms.
US-based OpenRAN firm Parallel Wireless, has announced that Vodafone deployed a macro Parallel Wireless OpenRAN pilot in Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)) and in Asia (Turkey).
According to a statement released by the companies, both production trials are a part of a Telecom Infra Project OpenRAN initiative to reduce deployment and maintenance costs for RAN platforms.
Parallel Wireless’ ALL G cloud-native fully virtualised RAN solution has been deployed in both urbanised and less dense locations and allows operators to meet growing demand for mobile broadband services while meeting the cost demands of maintaining an ALL G network and expanding its capacity.
The OpenRAN solution disaggregates hardware and software to make deployments fully virtualised, easy and affordable to install, maintain, and upgrade to any future technology. This can reduce OPEX by as much as a third.
“Parallel Wireless virtualised multi-technology OpenRAN solution disaggregates hardware and software to make deployments fully virtualised, easy and affordable to install, maintain, and to upgrade to any future technology resulting in potential OPEX reduction by up to a third.
“Parallel Wireless has shown a very strong performance, quality of service and cost benefits while, for the first time simultaneously delivering all three RAN technologies (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE) to commercial customers,” part of the statement reads.
The multi-technology software-defined GPP-based base stations allowed Vodafone to replace legacy 2G systems with fully virtualised 2G technology and to run 2G and 4G simultaneously on the same base station to provide commercial data and voice services to Vodafone customers in Turkey, in urban and rural parts of the country.
At the same time, customers in DRC are receiving 2G and 3G service from the same base station simultaneously in a forthcoming trial. Multi-technology RRUs are software-defined, easy to deploy and maintain.
It also provides seamless mobility, local breakout, and low latency for the best subscriber experience for Vodafone customers, the companies claim.
Amrit Heer, Head of Business Development, EME, Parallel Wireless said, “Hardware-based networks are costly and difficult to maintain and upgrade. By shifting networks to virtualised OpenRAN, telecom operators can cloudify their networks to deliver coverage to every single subscriber at much lower cost. We are proud to support Vodafone in reimagining wireless infrastructure to be much lower cost ensuring more equal access to connectivity.”