Mavenir Telecom insists Open RAN will be a success after he refuted claims from some that Open RAN has been a failure.

Some within the mobile industry have questioned the progress around Open RAN, a technology that seeks to diversify the vendor supply chain and mix and match vendors within the mobile networks.

One analyst recently noted on LinkedIn that Open RAN is "dead," stating that Tier 1 vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson have taken over.

However, Mavenir, a challenger vendor that wants a chunk of the Open RAN market, said such talk is nonsense.

The company has had some public challenges in the last 12 months, including reports that it had encountered financial problems.

"I think it's more a case of the press saying that Open RAN is dead because Mavenir is in trouble, and that's absolutely not true," Rick Mostaert, vice president of product management, RAN, told DCD during Mobile World Congress.

"I've not had one customer say to me they're worried about Open RAN going away. In fact, they want to work with Mavenir because they want this [Open RAN]."

Mostaert didn't discuss those reported financial struggles but did note that Europe has experienced difficulties in finding many implementations of nationwide multi-vendor Open RAN because of challenges around the rip-and-replace of networks.

Aramco Digital, the digital arm of Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco, has reportedly held talks with Mavenir to take a significant minority stake in the US software maker.

Incumbents need to be more "open"

Mostaert accepts that Open RAN hasn't materialized as the industry expected it would, but argues that Ericsson and Nokia can do more to support this.

"I think scaling up and with the tier one brownfield is slower than we would like, but it is happening, and it's slow because it's complex and necessary," he said.

"And also because, to be frank, Ericsson and Nokia don't open up, and they're doing everything they can to keep the new vendors out."

Ericsson won the bulk of AT&T's Open RAN network contract back in 2023, worth $14 billion. Mavenir is also supporting this network rollout through the supply of 5G radios, along with Fujitsu.

Mostaert is also positive about the company's role in AT&T's rollout, even if it's on a smaller scale than Ericsson's. He added that Mavenir is in the running for more radio contracts, such as the one it has with AT&T.

Some of Mavenir's Open RAN partners include Boost Mobile, Virgin Media O2, Norway's Ice, and Bermuda's Paradise Mobile.

"The foundations are very solid for Open RAN," said Mostaert. "It's a matter of will. Some of it's a matter of scaling up, and that will happen, whether it's one year or two years."

According to Mostaert, Open RAN's development is split into three phases. The first, he notes, is whether it works. The second is around scale, and the third is innovation.

"When there's enough to deploy, you're going to see innovations that are going to accelerate because it's truly open. You have an ecosystem of hundreds of companies that contribute that weren't even in RAN before."

Small cells opportunity

One segment of the Open RAN market that Mavenir has identified is around the deployment of small cells.

Mostaert notes that small cells, typically attached to street furniture such as lampposts, are ideal for boosting capacity in dense areas.

The company has already supported Three UK's deployment of small cells in Glasgow.

"That's a big part of our strategy this year, we're telling everyone about Glasgow and small cells," said Mostaert.

The deployment of Mavenir's Open RAN small cells shows that multiple vendors can be present at once, notes Mostaert, who touts the opportunities around both indoor and outdoor street-level deployments.

"It's a way that you can introduce Open RAN into the network. And also for us, it's a way to establish credibility. Small cells are less complex."

We profile Open RAN and more in the next issue of the DCD Magazine. Subscribe for free today.