Operators, equipment makers, and software vendors made a lot of noise about open radio access network (RAN) technology at MWC Barcelona. Some at the event and others during the event from afar. 

Deutsche Telekom kicked off the event by activating its “O-RAN Town” in Neubrandenburg, Germany, with sites supporting massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology. CEO Timotheus Höttges, joining the opening keynote remotely, described it as “open RAN in real life” paired with the “first real end-to-end network slicing in 5G.”

The German operator’s first open RAN sites include equipment from Dell Technologies, Fujitsu, Intel, Mavenir, NEC, and Supermicro. This includes servers from Dell and Supermicro, remote radio units from Fujitsu and NEC, cloud-native baseband software from Mavenir, and Intel’s FlexRAN software. 

Deutsche Telekom, which has formally supported the open RAN push since 2016, said it plans to add additional vendors as it expands O-RAN Town through 2022, eventually reaching 25 sites. It’s the first open RAN deployment with massive MIMO radio units in Europe, according to the operator.

Open RAN software and hardware vendor Mavenir issued 10 news releases during the first three days of the event, plugging continued momentum and uptake of the burgeoning technology framework. Its software is running in what’s claimed to be the first live commercial open vRAN deployment with Telecom Infra Project’s (TIP) Evenstar 4G radios on parts of Axiata’s networks in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Parallel Wireless also plugged its role in Axiata’s open RAN networks, providing its technology for 2G and 4G radios.

Orange tapped Mavenir, Casa Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Dell Technologies, and Mavenir for an “experimental” 5G standalone (SA) open RAN network it intends to deploy in Lannion, France later this month. Orange earlier this year joined Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Vodafone in a European-led push to support open RAN, calling it “the technology of choice for future mobile networks.”

Mavenir also highlighted its contributions in NTT Data’s cloud-native 5G SA campus network at a facility in Munich, a partnership with L&T Technology Services for end-to-end 5G automation services, and collaboration with Movandi on a millimeter-wave open RAN smart city deployment in Thailand. The U.S.-based company also won an agreement with Ligado to provide the satellite provider with open RAN remote radio units and software.

Fujitsu, a rising open RAN radio vendor, announced a collaboration with TIP to advance work in the Facebook-led OpenRAN Project Group.

Finally, Italian operator TIM demonstrated open RAN technology at MWC Barcelona, including a distributed unit and central unit from JMA Wireless, and Keysight Technologies’ Open RAN Architect and RuSIM offerings.