AT&T to deploy Fujitsu and Mavenir radio’s in crowded urban areas
AT&T announced today that it has signed new agreements with Fujitsu and Mavenir to develop radios specifically for crowded urban areas in its Open RAN deployment using Ericsson hardware and software. The goal is to improve network performance and coverage in cities with lots of mobile data traffic.
These radios will be open C-band radios (TDD 4T4R) and dual band radios (B25/B66 FDD 4T4R) which can be attached to existing utility and light poles. They can often be hidden, making them virtually unseen from street level. We are continuing to look for opportunities to bring additional third-party radios into the network when needed.
All open radios will be managed by Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) via open management interfaces. EIAP is Ericsson’s open network management and service orchestration platform. It supports replacing the old legacy equipment and installing the new radios without missing a beat.
When Open RAN architectures are combined with innovative applications called ‘rApps’ from either the operator or third parties, they can greatly improve the customer experience. This is achieved through better network performance, wider coverage, cost efficiency, and fosters innovation. ‘rAPPs’ are expected to play a critical role in managing and sustaining third party radio innovation opportunities.
AT&T is moving 70% of its 5G network traffic to flow across Open RAN hardware by late 2026 – our customers can relax and enjoy a better wireless experience.
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Mavenir has been selling open RAN software for years, but it entered the 5G radio sector in 2022 with its OpenBeam brand. Mavenir’s radios for AT&T will be managed by Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP).
AT&T said it would only use Mavenir radios in “crowded urban areas,” which are typically covered by small cell radios rather than massive macro cell sites. The operator did not say how many Mavenir radios it would use nor when it might start deploying those radios.
“Maybe the initial thinking is it’s small cells, but there’s a bigger strategy at play here,” AT&T’s Jeff McElfresh said during a media event on Tuesday. McElfresh explained that small cells could play an important role inside AT&T’s network as network traffic increases. After all, small cells are viewed as a way to increase overall wireless network capacity in the absence of additional spectrum.
Mavenir’s other 5G radio customers include Paradise Mobile and Triangle Communications.
Aramco Digital, the tech-focused subsidiary of oil giant Saudi Aramco, is poised to invest $1 billion into Mavenir for a significant minority stake in the business.
That cash is needed. S&P Global recently warned that Mavenir is close to default or restructuring because it has insufficient funds to cover looming debt obligations.
References:
https://about.att.com/blogs/2024/open-ran-new-collaborations.html
https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/at-t-to-deploy-radios-from-mavenir
NTT advert in WSJ: Why O-RAN Will Change Everything; AT&T selects Ericsson for its O-RAN
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Mavenir will stop hardware production after struggling to land contracts in a radio access network (RAN) market still dominated by Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia. “The only wrong thing we did was to bet on open RAN in a heavy way,” Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli said on a call with Light Reading.
Mavenir saw open RAN – which allows telcos to combine parts from different vendors more easily – as an opportunity to break into a market that generated product revenues of about $45 billion in 2022, according to data from Omdia, a Light Reading sister company. But Mavenir’s expansion into hardware was followed by a sharp downturn as telcos cut spending on RAN products by $5 billion in 2023 and another $5 billion last year, according to Omdia’s data. In that environment, telcos have largely stuck with existing suppliers and continued to buy all the products for any site from the same company.
Dell’Oro, another analyst firm, expects multivendor open RAN deployments – where an operator pairs one vendor’s RAN compute products with another supplier’s radios – to account for just 5% to 10% of total RAN revenues in 2028. Without sector growth between now and then, Mavenir could be looking at an addressable RAN compute market worth no more than $1.05 billion in sales.
“The only wrong thing we did was to bet on open RAN in a heavy way,” Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli said on a call with Light Reading.
The decision to exit RAN hardware will not have a massive impact on revenues at Mavenir, which generates 80% to 90% of its sales in the market for core network software. But it should make a big difference to margins, which have inevitably suffered with the push into the less profitable hardware sector.
Even so, Kohli insists most of Mavenir’s research-and-development (R$D) spending in the RAN area has gone toward software, not hardware. “We spent almost $250 million, but the hardware was a very small portion of it,” he said. “We’ve probably spent $50 million, $60 million doing the hardware. A lot of it went into doing software and breaking out the open interface.”
https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/mavenir-boss-regrets-open-ran-bet-in-u-turn-after-financial-rescue