Airtel has partnered with American Chipmaker Qualcomm to rollout 5G in India. Airtel will use Qualcomm’s 5G Radio Access Network to roll out virtualized and open-RAN based 5G Network in the country.
What is Open RAN?
Open RAN stands for Open Radio Access Networks which is a new and hot technology in the wireless cellular industry. In short you can understand Open RAN as a technology that involves the interoperability of open hardware, software, and interfaces. With Open RAN, Mobile Network Operators can use equipments from multiple vendors and at the same time will also ensure interoperability. Today, Many wireless cellular companies are preferring Open RAN as it reduces the network management cost, avoids vendor lock in, participates in Hardware Software Development and more.
One recent example is, Last October, Reliance Jio and Qualcomm partnered to conduct a trial to test Jio’s 5G equipment on Qualcomm’s Radio Access Network. In that trial, Jio achieved 1 Gbps of speed while testing its 5GNR solutions on Qualcomm’s Radio Access Network.
Now, talking about Airtel’s partnership with Qualcomm to bring Open-RAN based 5G network, Airtel has said it will bring more opportunities for small and medium sized businesses to become viable players in deployment of 5G networks in the country.
Airtel and Qualcomm to roll out 5G Fixed Wireless Access Network
In addition to Open RAN 5G Networks, Airtel and Qualcomm will also roll out 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, that will deliver broadband connectivity at Gigabit speed. Airtel’s Open RAN 5G Network and FWA 5G network, both will wirelessly offer multi-giga internet speed.
