NEC Corporation (NEC), a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies, and Altiostar Networks, the global leader in providing 5G-ready, open virtualized RAN (vRAN) solutions, have announced a collaboration to accelerate the deployment of  4G/5G open vRAN solutions. The combined offering will help service providers to improve quality of experience, enhance spectral efficiency and significantly reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).

Under this collaboration agreement, NEC, its subsidiary Netcracker Technology and Altiostar will jointly work on 4G/5G open vRAN business development, including joint marketing activities and development of solutions that leverage each company’s advanced technologies and experience. The collaboration will bring together NEC’s IT, network and system integration expertise and Netcracker’s orchestration capability with Altiostar’s field-proven vRAN technology.

Altiostar, a US-based company, pioneered open vRAN solutions where service providers deploy a radio access network using best-of-breed solutions. This is enabled using virtualization technologies that not only permit disaggregation of hardware and software, but also give service providers the ability to implement a platform that allows for deployment of micro services, automation, applications and services.

NEC, a Japanese-based company, together with its wholly owned subsidiary Netcracker, actively promotes an open, virtualized infrastructure model in support of the 5G era, utilizing both IT, orchestration and network expertise. Moreover, the NEC ecosystem contributes to radio access networks via interoperability testing between multiple vendors' equipment that is compliant with O-RAN fronthaul specifications.

“The level of innovation that we bring to the 4G/5G RAN market with our open vRAN solution is unprecedented,” said Thierry Maupile, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Product Management for Altiostar. “We are excited about our collaboration with NEC to solve 4G/5G network challenges through enhanced network intelligence and simplified network rollouts for service providers. Together with NEC, we believe we can help service providers reach their 4G/5G open vRAN deployment goals.” 

“Service providers are looking for proven and market-ready open vRAN solutions. To address this need, collaboration across the ecosystem is essential,” said Mayuko Tatewaki, general manager at NEC. “Altiostar’s innovative products enable service providers to reduce complexity, innovate more quickly and significantly reduce deployment and operational costs. The combination of our advanced assets will accelerate the development of the open vRAN market, help mobile service providers transform their networks to support innovative services and accelerate their TCO goals.”

This joint collaboration initiated between the two companies has already been successful in key commercial deployments and will continue to provide value added solutions for customers worldwide. Details on this collaboration will be provided during MWC Barcelona 2020 at the NEC booth, Hall 3, 3M30 and the Altiostar booth, Hall 2, 2C32.