They plan to launch Saudi Arabia’s first commercial Open RAN infrastructure in 2024
solutions by stc has announced an Open RAN agreement with Mavenir to launch the first commercial Open RAN network in Saudi Arabia. stc says the deal supports its Vision 2030 digital transformation strategy.
The service is expected to go live commercially this year. The decision to proceed with the commercial open RAN follows an initial deployment of a multi-layer 4G and 5G Non-Standalone access network on Mavenir’s Open RAN platform.
It uses Mavenir’s 4G Remote Radio Unit (RRU) and 5G Massive MIMO (mMIMO) Active Antenna Unit (AAU) technology. It also leverages Mavenir’s cloud-native Webscale Platform with its containerised centralized Uunit (CU) and distributed unit (DU) software.
Bedding in with COTs
The solution will run on x86 commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware platform for its open interface radio systems.
BG Kumar, President, Access Networks, Platforms and Digital Enablement at Mavenir, commented, “Mavenir is confident that stc’s Open RAN network in Saudi Arabia will act as a catalyst for further accelerating operators’ digital transformation journeys across the Middle East region, ushering in a wave of customer-focused innovation that can fully leverage the unique potential generated by open standards and architecture.”