RAN

Best of British, or BoB will build high performance small cells 100 per cent designed and manufactured in the UK. The apparatus it produces will significantly reduce the cost of deploying a small network through advanced radio design.

One of the most challenging components in a mobile network site is the ‘Distributed Unit’ or DU. This performs signal processing, converting radio signals to data traffic that can then be transported by the microwave, optical and wireline networks to the core network infrastructure.

Proteus is breaking open the proprietary nature of mobile base stations by creating a flexible layer of software which interfaces directly to the radio hardware. This will allow companies, large and small, outside the handful of big vendors to develop competitive products which are quicker to market.

The project will develop ground-breaking, UK-made, scalable, cost-effective optical interface technology, to enable the dense roll out of optical fibre 5G radio access networks with open digital interfaces for interoperability and low latency.

• TelecomTV has just conducted its second annual Open RAN market perception survey
• We asked the network operator community for their views on a range of Open RAN topics, including the potential energy-efficiency gains from deploying Open RAN technology
• Even the partisan survey responde

The trial, part of the government-backed 5G MoDE (Mobile O-RAN for Highly Dense Environments) project, was delivered by VMO2 and Mavenir and took place during the England vs Italy Six Nations match.

• Telco spending on network technology dipped by 11% year on year in 2024, according to research firm Dell’Oro Group
• The only sector that didn’t shrink was fixed broadband equipment 
• Don’t expect a recovery – overall, telco spending on network gear is expected to be flat this year

Vodafone UK and Ericsson have successfully reduced daily power consumption of 5G Radio Units by up to 33% in trial sites across London.

As the Future Network Programmes conclude, UKTIN is working with DSIT to reflect on the government-funded projects, outlining the key outcomes and the lessons learned to help improve future telecoms initiatives. 

Summary

• Jio Platforms Limited (JPL), along with AMD, Cisco, and Nokia, plans to build an Open Telecom AI Platform to redefine telecom operations with cutting-edge AI integration

Partnership to advance equipment vendor adoption and operator deployment of virtualized 4G and 5G Open RAN mobile networks

As the Future Network Programmes conclude, UKTIN is working with DSIT to reflect on the government-funded projects, outlining the key outcomes and the lessons learned to help improve future telecoms initiatives. 

• There’s growing interest (as well as skepticism) in the AI-RAN concept
• Nokia, one of the founders of the AI-RAN Alliance, looks determined to position itself at the forefront of AI-RAN developments
• It has rocked up to MWC25 with news of advances with fellow AI-RAN Alliance founders N

The latest numbers from analyst firm Omdia reveal what a tough year 2024 was for the radio access networks kit market but look forward to a momentum shift this year.