Europe’s four largest mobile network operators are linking up to support the deployment of open radio access network (RAN) technology across the continent. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone describe open RAN as “the technology of choice for future mobile networks to the benefit of consumer and enterprise customers across Europe.”

The operators signed an agreement to individually and jointly commit to deploy the technology, which separates hardware from software in telecommunications networks with open interfaces. Mobile carriers are especially interested in open RAN because it is framed as an alternative to the proprietary nature of RAN and the effective monopoly enjoyed by a trio of global RAN suppliers.

RAN vendor consolidation during the past decade has escalated operators’ eagerness to open the supply chain. 

The multinational operators based in Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom said they will work with the O-RAN Alliance, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and European and country-specific policymakers to help open RAN reach “competitive parity with traditional RAN solutions.” 

Indeed, open RAN’s ability to match the performance of traditional RAN systems remains its most pressing challenge. Proponents of the technology claim it can dramatically lower opex and capex, but the technology is still young, under development, and unproven at mass scale.

“So far, open RAN has been deployed in just one large-scale commercial network by Rakuten Mobile, although it is the focus of Dish Network’s planned 5G rollout,” analysts at Analysys Mason noted in a recent report. Both of those operators are assembling greenfield networks, which are decidedly less complex and unencumbered from a technical integration perspective.

“Commercial buildout in greenfield, rural, and enterprise markets is likely in the near term (one to three years), but there are bigger challenges when it comes to deploying in a 5G macro network that is capable of supporting very high traffic loads and ultra-low latency in a wide range of spectrum bands, including millimeter-wave (mmWave),” the Analysys Mason report explained.

“Non-greenfield deployments of macro Open RAN will therefore be rare before 2023, and operators will need to feel confident that any losses are fully outweighed by gains. The perception of these gains is likely to change as operators evaluate the new platforms in detail,” the report noted, adding that 70% of operators it recently surveyed expect opex “to be the same or higher in the first three years of open RAN.”

All four of the Europe-based operators have previously signaled support for open RAN to varying extents with trials and less broad deployments in select markets. However, Telefónica stands out for its recent pledge to commercially deploy open RAN in one of its main operations by early 2022. Enrique Blanco, CTO and CIO at Telefónica, also said the operator will transition at least half of the markets it serves to open RAN by 2025. 

The quartet, which has a combined customer base of more than 1.2 billion customers, did not commit to any new timelines for mass deployments of the technology in their agreement announced today. However, statements from the technology leaders at all four companies depict open RAN as the next evolution of 5G RAN that will be critical to achieve greater flexibility, efficiency, and security in their respective networks. 

Many of the factors driving the rise of open RAN will also create more challenges for operators, analysts at Analysys Mason said. The introduction of more vendors will require operators to integrate services, equipment, and architectures that effectively operate in silos by design. Those challenges are even more difficult in complex macro deployments in higher-frequency spectrum, according to the research firm. 

As such, the analysts said “we expect that open RAN macro networks will be adopted only slowly until the end of 2023, as operators wait for platforms to mature.”