5G NETWORKS
“ In four to five years , we ’ d expect significant proliferation of 5G to have occurred across the UK ”
ADRIAN O ’ CONNOR CEO , BENETEL
short , OpenRAN is a way of building a network that emphasises standardisation and therefore interoperability between components sold by a range of third party suppliers . This means that carriers can send requests for proposals ( RFPs ) to multiple vendors , potentially choosing multiple suppliers to work across a single major project , something which is increasingly popular due to the increased agility and resilience that accompany a diversified supply chain and partner ecosystem .
On the supplier side , advocates for OpenRAN adoption believe that the approach will lower barriers to entry , foster collaboration and innovation , and ultimately accelerate the UK ’ s journey to fully embracing the potential of 5G .
“ OpenRAN has the potential to fast forward innovation in the 5G network , accelerating the rate of production of new architectures and solutions ,” says Joe Butler , chief technology officer at Digital Catapult , the UK Government ’ s agency that advocates and organises on behalf of faster adoption in the technology space . He ’ s also one of the leading figures in the SONIC project , a collaboration between Digital Catapult and the UK ’ s mobile industry watchdog
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