Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (00:23):
Hello, you're watching telecom TV series on the open RAN Vanguard Inside the TELUS Open RAN transformation In this special series of programs, we'll give you an exclusive inside view of the open RAN transformation at TELUS, sharing the telco's future vision and its journey as it unfolds. Be sure to register your interests so you don't miss out on any of these programs, and we'll keep you updated on all new content as it's released. As one of the industry's first major telcos to deploy Open RAN TELUS has brought together manufacturers and providers to create a modular state-of-the-art wireless network. In this second executive interview, we'll be asking why it's time to leave traditional RAN behind. And joining me to explain is my special guest Bernard Bureau, VP Wireless Strategy and Services at TELUS. Hello Bernard. Welcome to the show.

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (01:19):
Hello, thanks for having me today.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (01:21):
Today we're going to explore the evolution of open ran technology today and look ahead to future deployments. So let's start by asking where we are now and based on TELUS experience, how would you assess the current maturity level of open ran technology in real world deployments?

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (01:40):
Well, it's interesting. Integrating O-RAN in our network has been quite interesting. In fact, not as difficult as we thought. Telcos have been doing cloud network functions for a while now, so automatically setting up the or HP server with Wind River OS and container platform and network connectivity was not something new for us. And we treated the setup of the RAN function itself with the right configuration as a great opportunity to advance our automation and really achieve zero touch provisioning for the first time. This is the part that is more challenging in the Brownfield environment because you have to adapt to all the various existing databases and systems to make the end-to-end process work. But because we've been running Samsung Networks, traditional RAN, many items were almost business as usual, like the virtual CU operation for example, and many aspects of the operational metrics. And in terms of network performance and reliability, were very happy the Samsung networks, virtual CU and DU meets or exceeds or all our KPIs from our traditional RAN.

(02:56):
And I think this is due both because we have feature parity between the traditional RAN and virtual RAN that Samsung provides us, as well as Samsung's implementation of its layer one implementation on the Intel Sapphire Rapids E platform. And lastly, in terms of availability, we've also reached our target. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this was all perfect the first day, but overall it went pretty smoothly, certainly much more smoother than what we had anticipated. We did encounter some problems of course, but the important thing is that we were able to quickly resolve them and with our motivated technology partners like Samsung Networks, windriver, Intel, HP, and many others, we were able to do just that.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (03:50):
Focusing on those achievements, what key milestones has tell us achieved in its open RAN implementation and what does your experience to date tell us about the technology's readiness for widespread adoption

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (04:03):
In the late summer 2024?

(04:05):
So last year we completely pivoted our deployment from traditional RAN to open RAN and it means that since then we are deploying the Open RAN architecture for the entirety of our outdoor network deployment.

(04:17):
And that's very meaningful for TELUS at this point in time because we are in the process of replacing our entire radio network.

(04:23):
So

(04:36):
we're a bit more than half of the way done. So the remaining part of our network will be O-RAN by the end of 2027, and we will revisit also the recent to additional RAN sites that we've implemented so that by the end of 2029, 100% of our network is going to be O-RAN. To answer the question very specifically, we are of the opinion that the technology is ready for widespread adoption, including for brownfield operators and complex networks such as Telus is. We're using O-RAN with a full set of feature. We have nine bands of LTE and three of NR and we have 45 cells per site and it's growing.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (05:16):
From a TELUS perspective, what are the most significant technical challenges that still need to be addressed in open ran technology?

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (05:25):
Yeah, well I think the level of maturity for the non-real time RIC needs to improve. I mean, we have choices, but very little deployments yet that we can see. We believe that 2025 is a year where we're going to see a lot of progress and at the list we're deploying the non-real time RIC this year. So we're going to be one of those deployments. Another area is the SMO. There will be always some parts of the SMO that are customs to operators and we've been able to achieve great things with zero touch provisioning, but I find that the industry still has important improvements to achieve to fully move away from the legacy OSS constructs. Many interfaces are lacking maturity, they are not fully defined and more work is needed to completely eliminate any proprietary implementations.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (06:17):
What improvements or advancements in open ran technology has us observed over the past few years and what does this suggest about its future trajectory?

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (06:27):
Yeah, well, looking back the last few years, I can only say wow, there's been an incredible progress in those last few years. Certainly the Sapphire Rapids E platform is the first one where we can deploy our virtual DU without any external accelerator and still achieve parity on space and power with traditional RAN. Now we also have an extremely solid and mature container platform and OSS OS that is fully adapted to the RAN network function works really, really well. And as I said a minute ago, we're achieving an overall availability level that meets our requirements. I would say also that the open fronthaul is also quite mature and completing the interoperability between an RU and a DU of a different supplier is no longer a source of concern specifically for 44 R or 88 R radios. I think we've reached a point in 2024 last year where O Ran is as capable as traditional ran for both 4G and 5G without to using any proprietary hardware. That was fundamental. But now in 2025 and beyond, we're really going to be able to extract a ton of benefit from the O RAN architecture. The non-real time RIC will provide an incredible value for closed loop automation. It's going to be so much easier than using a centralized SON platform. The choices for any of the open RAN building blocks are increasing. We are going into an era where operators can truly assign their RAN business on merit and not on incumbency.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (08:09):
What timeline do you foresee for open ran technology to reach parity with or surpass traditional RAN solutions?

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (08:17):
I'm going to do that, but I'm also going to provide a little bit point of view of TELUS about where the industry needs to go. In order to properly conclude on this topic, I want to highlight that TELUS is a big operator in Canada, but we're quite small compared to some US, European or Asian operators. And despite our small size and especially when compared to those large global peers of ours, and despite the high complexity of our network, we were able to implement open RAN and virtual RAN without any proprietary hardware in the Brownfield environment. And today, this is the only type of open RAN deployment that we're doing. Performance is great, availability is great, and we're really happy with where we are. So my message to my peers globally is that this ecosystem is ready today for all types of deployment, urban or rural greenfield or brownfield, low or high network complexity. O ran needs to become the norm for all 4G and 5G equipment suppliers for all the interfaces including the open frontal and without any proprietary hardware. My comment applies to both the technical aspect and the commercial aspect of open RAN. No one in the past 15 or 20 years question the viability of a multi supplier environment between the RAN and the core. It needs to become the same for all the open RAN building blocks.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (09:41):
Well, we have to leave it there, but Bernard, thank you very much for sharing your views with us today.

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (09:47):
My pleasure.

Clarence Reynolds, TelecomTV (09:49):
And if you enjoyed this program, then please watch the other featured content in this series. We'll be back following MWC with the third instalment of the series on the open Ran Vanguard inside the TELUS Open RAN transformation before concluding the series with an in-depth panel discussion and an exclusive report from Apple Door Research. To make sure you don't miss the release of these videos, register your interest and sign up at our website. That's also the place where you'll find further information about the series along with links to all related content. For now, thank you for watching the Open Ran Vanguard inside the TELUS Open RAN transformation.