Rakuten Symphony has announced a collaboration with Bangladeshi operator Grameenphone to build an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), making it one of the first pilots of the technology in South Asia.
The pilot network will include 4G and 5G non-Standalone (NSA) sites and marks the first phase of an eventual nationwide Open RAN deployment across Grameenphone’s footprint, which serves around 86 million mobile subscribers.
Rakuten said it will provide the Centralised Unit (CU) and Distributed Unit (DU) infrastructure, 4G/5G Radio Units, and its OSS solutions.
“Our collaboration with Grameenphone, one of South Asia’s inaugural Open RAN deployments, is a testament to our vision for the future of telecommunications,” said Rakuten Symphony president Sharad Sriwastawa (pictured, left).
Grameenphone CTO Jai Prakash (pictured, right) added that the Telenor subsidiary’s Open RAN pilot is a significant step towards building a “future-ready network.”
