News Wire Feed Light Reading 3/17/2021
WASHINGTON, DC The Federal Communications Commission today adopted a Notice of Inquiry to start a formal discussion on the opportunities and potential challenges presented by open and virtualized radio access networks, and how the FCC might leverage these concepts to support network security and 5G leadership. The FCC seeks comment on the current status of development and deployment, whether and how the FCC might foster the success of these technologies, and how to support competitiveness and new entrant access to this emerging market.
The Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN) concept promotes the use of open interface standards in the portion of the telecommunications network that connects wireless deviceslike mobile phonesto the core of the network. This can be implemented in vendor-neutral hardware and software-defined technology based on open interfaces and standards. In addit
Nokia has clearly been saving up all its major public cloud announcements in order to make one big splash: the Finnish vendor has unveiled partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure all focusing on collaboration in the field of open and virtualized radio access networks (RAN) with private mobile networks for enterprise users as the first target market.
As noted by Gabriel Brown, principal analyst at Heavy Reading, by announcing all three partnerships at the same time, Nokia is impeccable in its neutrality and showing its commitment to cross-platform. This is exactly the right strategy because enterprise end-users, telcos and the cloud providers themselves all want choice and diversity in this market. Undoubtedly, Nokia has some market power here as one of the leading arguably
Nokia partners with Microsoft to integrate Cloud RAN with Azure
Mar 15, 2021 13:16 EDT with 3 comments
Nokia and Microsoft have formed a new partnership that will see Nokia integrate its Cloud RAN technology with Microsoft’s Azure to boost end-user functionality in business scenarios. The partnership is one part of Nokia’s strategy to partner with cloud providers to deliver for end-user businesses looking to monetise their 4G and 5G deployments.
Commenting on the partnership, Yousef Khalidi, Corporate Vice President, Azure for Operators at Microsoft said:
“Microsoft believes in the importance of an open and interoperable ecosystem of solutions on the Azure carrier grade platform. Our collaboration with Nokia across multiple potential use cases, based on specific customer demand, will provide operators with choices on how the best adopt cloud technology in concert with their 5G updates to drive new revenue streams, reduce cost and future proof th
Mar 15, 2021 12:06pm
Nokia is pairing its 5G RAN technologies with cloud services from big public clouds. (Getty Images)
Nokia issued a flurry of announcements today, marking all of its involvements with big cloud providers related to 5G. It is pairing its radio access network (RAN) technologies for 5G along with cloud services from Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud.
The timing of Nokia’s announcements is interesting. Just last week, Nokia said it would not attend Mobile World Congress 2021, scheduled to happen as a live event in Barcelona in late June. Ericsson has also pulled out of the in-person event, citing health concerns about Covid. But in a surprise move, consultant Danielle Royston, purchased the entire space that Ericsson vacated, and she plans to invite the big cloud providers to exhibit as part of a “cloud city.”
Synopsis
OpenRAN as a concept enables hardware and software to be dis-aggregated, unlike conventional radio gears, allowing technology products from different suppliers to co-exist with the various software providers.
Bharti
Airtel has filed a fresh application with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) seeking approval to conduct 5G trials with US-based Mavenir in the Punjab circle using the OpenRAN technology, people familiar with the matter said.
Vodafone Idea had last year submitted a similar application to conduct OpenRAN technology-based 5G trial with Mavenir in Delhi. It is already running 4G trials with Mavenir in several cities. “The application was submitted recently to test the OpenRAN technology especially for 5G services in India. OpenRAN is going to be a big focus area for Airtel, thereby the application,” a person aware of the development told ET.