Verizon revealed in an announcement this week that it has deployed more than 130,000 Open RAN capable radios. The telco noted that the figure includes the massive MIMO radios as part of the previously announced 15,000 O-RAN compliant virtualized cell sites with O-RAN compliant baseband units in its commercial RAN.
"Verizon is fully supportive of O-RAN technology and is focused on commercializing an operationally sound O-RAN architecture,” said Adam Koeppe, SVP of technology planning at Verizon. “Our commitment to developing O-RAN standards and to deploying compliant equipment in our active Radio Access Network is helping to drive the industry forward which will result in a variety of tangible benefits for our customers."
Kristian Toivo, executive director Telecom Infra Project, an organization focused on industry collaboration within networks added, "By committing to ‘open’ principles, operators can disaggregate and put software innovation at the heart of their 5G networks. Enabling multi-vendor solutions will lower network build-out costs over time and open up new opportunities for revenue generation, with savings passed on to the consumer."
