The network will be rolled out in the Central African Republic as part of Orange’s Ideal programme which stands for Include Digital in Every African Life.
Orange, a big supporter of the disaggregated movement at the heart of OpenRAN, will use Parallel Wireless’ tech and in partnership and i engineering Group to expand its network coverage and subscriber base in the country, which currently stands at 700,000.
The Central African Republic has four operators, of which Orange is the most recent entrant, and has only only 48% unique mobile connections and limited network infrastructure.
The plan is for Parallel Wireless to shift to OpenRAN network architectures to make 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks software-based and scalable.
Cost and scale
According to the vendor, the networks are cost-effective to deploy, maintain and can deliver the coverage and capacity to the end users and businesses across the country.
Parallel Wireless’s OpenRAN has been deployed on six continents.
Opennes and virtualisation
Hervé Suquet, CTIO, Orange Middle East & Africa, said, “The combination of RAN openness and virtualization, automation and new revenue-generating opportunities will enable Orange to lead the market to meet the needs of our customers most effectively in Central African Republic.
“Indeed, thanks to this technology, Orange RCA will provide to rural populations the full range of services (voice, data and Orange Money), already provided in urban areas.
“Being able to run 2G and 3G on the same system today and, as our customers upgrade their devices to 4G in the future, seamlessly upgrade to 4G, will help us not only extend our initial investment, but also bring new services much faster.
“Parallel Wireless is a well-known Open RAN player, and together with the deployment and managed services expertise from i engineering Group, they have become true strategic partners and the key enablers in us undertaking this unique network modernization.”