Türk Telekom Selects Mavenir and ComPro for 4G/5G Open vRAN Pilot

Barcelona, Spain: Mavenir, the Network Software Provider building the future of networks with cloud-native software that runs on any cloud and transforms the way the world connects, announces today the company has been selected by Türk Telekom for an Open virtualized RAN (Open vRAN) pilot. Telecom Infra Project (TIP) will support the trial and ComPro Information Technologies Inc will act as systems integrator.

Türk Telekom, the leading-edge and first integrated telecommunications operator in Turkey, has been working for a long time on Open RAN technologies that will play an active role in 5G networks. With this vision, Türk Telekom is a member of TIP, a non-profit organization, promoting open technologies and a disaggregated ecosystem to facilitate and improve their adoption. Türk Telekom’s pilot is designed to contribute to the work of Open RAN and Open Transport project groups within TIP.

Mavenir’s award-winning Open vRAN solution, which is based on the world’s first fully containerized, virtualized Open RAN Split 7.2x architecture, gives operators increased business agility, network elasticity and flexibility. Mavenir is providing Türk Telekom with a complete end-to-end Open vRAN solution which will allow a single architecture to support the existing 4G network, as well as densify coverage for 5G. Processing will be aggregated in the central units (CUs) and distributed units (DUs) simplifying the cell sites and transforming the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Concerning the overall architecture, main responsibilities of ComPro as System Integrator, include the timely delivery and installation of various O-RAN compliant components, whilst ensuring the smooth integration of multi-vendor solutions.”

The pilot will include 4G radio units (RUs), 4G small cells and 5G Massive MIMO RUs with embedded beamforming technologies that conform to the O-RAN Alliance fronthaul specifications. The pilot will test Open vRAN in the Türk Telekom Innovation Center and in the field on pilot sites.

“Open, virtualised and interoperable networks based on cloud-native software and technologies offer significant capital and operational cost reduction while accelerating network delivery for CSPs,” said Puneet Sethi, Senior Vice President for RAN at Mavenir. “The move to an Open vRAN is an industry leadership milestone for Türk Telekom, one which Mavenir, together with our System Integrator partner ComPro, is proud to be a part of. Türk Telekom is building a new generation network by picking and choosing vendors based on merit and feature innovation. Once Open vRAN is integrated to the network, Türk Telekom will be able to select best-in-class RAN products available from the vast O-RAN ecosystem.”

Commenting on the release, Türk Telekom’s CTO Yusuf Kıraç – “We are pleased to work with Mavenir, ComPro and TIP on this Open vRAN pilot. We see that disruptive technologies such as Open vRAN have enormous potential for the future sustainability of networks. We are proud to contribute to the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and firmly believe that this and similar projects will play an important role in developing the O-RAN ecosystem and the networks of the future.”

“We are pleased to have the systems integrator role in ongoing Türk Telekom 4G/5G Open vRAN pilot with support of TIP. This is an ambitious enterprise led by Mavenir and formed by best-of-breed technology providers. Together, we are determined to deliver a higher maturity, game-changer Open vRAN solution, paving the way to significant OPEX/CAPEX savings for the first integrated telecommunications operator, Türk Telekom in Turkey” said Hakan Yildiz, Vice President, ComPro Information Technologies.