NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and DigitalBridge-backed Freshwave have been selected for Project NAVIGATE in the U.K. Government’s Open Networks Ecosystem competition. The project is part of the government’s $305 million 5G Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Strategy for fostering R&D projects for telecom, aimed at demonstrating deployment at scale using Open RAN.
NEC and Freshwave will collaborate on a small cell solution based on NEC’s Open vRAN software, which will demonstrate if an energy efficient and cost-effective Open RAN solution is technically and operationally viable, compared to legacy single RAN networks.
Freshwave is a connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider that helps mobile operators, central and local government, and real estate providers to work together. It has connected several central London boroughs and 2,000+ buildings.
“NEC aims to deploy a reference architecture based on its Open vRAN software that will support the diversification of the telecom supply chain, while accelerating market developments to provide a cost-effective and energy-efficient solution based on Open Standards,” said Hideyuki Ogata, General Manager, 5G Solution Department, NEC.
Project NAVIGATE aims to design, deploy, test, and validate a blueprint for deploying open and shareable, public mobile 4G and 5G networks. The competition includes 19 projects that aim to demonstrate the reliability and feasibility of Open RAN technologies.
Project NAVIGATE is the U.K. government’s attempt to deliver on its commitment to promote a diversified telecoms infrastructure in the U.K. that encourages greater industry innovation and collaboration, according to Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure, Sir John Whittingdale. The project is designed to deliver improved openness in line with the U.K. Government’s Open RAN Principles and acts as a catalyst to lowering the barriers to entry for new Open RAN vendors.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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