London, UK – Airspan Networks, which provides groundbreaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G network solutions, today announced plans to open a 5G Innovation Lab this month at its Slough, UK offices outside of London, in order to continue to lead innovation, promote collaboration with technology partners and customers, and to accelerate the adoption of Open RAN technology and its ecosystem.

The investment is part of Airspan’s ongoing initiative to invest in R&D and innovative and disruptive hardware and software. Airspan intends for the lab to serve multiple purposes: as a showcase and demonstration facility for partners, customers and government institutions, to focus on the development of Open RAN software, 5G sub 6 GHz and mmWave indoor and outdoor equipment, and private network use cases – all with the goal to provide partners and customers with the critical opportunity to collaborate, integrate and test features.

Led by Airspan’s R&D and Advanced Customer Services and Solutions teams, the lab is expected to feature:

• A full, end-to-end 5G Open RAN solution provided by Airspan software (CU, DU, RIC) and hardware (RU), including mmWave and sub 6GHz radios, ready to connect to any other elements of a 5G network.
• Critical interoperability testing with the key elements of a 5G standalone network: 5G Core, other RAN vendors, devices, transport/PTP, COTS servers, cloud native platforms, orchestrators and xApps.
• Indoor over the air (OTA) RF testing using a recently awarded Ofcom license in sub 6 and a future license in mmWave. This includes massive MIMO and beamforming features.
• Validation of real use cases for public and private networks, to accelerate adoption of Open RAN and showcase its many benefits.
• Development, testing and validation of new features following 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance latest releases in a fully virtualized 5G network based on Open RAN architecture.
• Support for the UK government’s disruptive Supply Chain Diversification plan.

Expanding Technology and Employee Presence in UK

The creation of this 5G Innovation Lab is part of Airspan’s ongoing plans to expand its employee presence in the UK, as the company plans to significantly increase the number of its UK-based software engineers. Airspan expects to add and expand innovation labs in other countries as well.

“We are excited to continue to invest to drive innovation in the UK and globally by working together with partners and customers, in innovation labs like this one,” said Eric Stonestrom, President and CEO of Airspan. “Through critical collaboration and testing in these labs, which we believe will help accelerate the development of Open RAN and 5G solutions and open architecture, we believe Airspan will continue to be at the forefront of innovation and industry disruption.”

Airspan welcomes the recommendations made by the Telecoms Diversification Taskforce and believes the policy measures outlined will deliver the UK government’s stated objectives to diversify and strengthen the UK’s 5G supply chains. As a result, Airspan is pleased to create additional highly-skilled engineering jobs in the UK, and to continue to invest in cutting-edge 5G technology and R&D. Our new Innovation Lab is expected to support the development of end-to-end Open RAN solutions, including software, 5G mmWave indoor and outdoor equipment, and critical 5G use cases.

UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman said, “We’re investing £450 million to explore how 5G can boost the economy while also building confidence and competition in this revolutionary technology. Airspan’s new lab of telecoms innovators will develop cutting-edge 5G networks and help create jobs and a more secure and diverse UK telecoms supply chain.”

Global Scale: 1,000+ customers in more than 100 countries

With more than 1,000 customers in over 100 countries worldwide, Airspan is at the forefront of breakthrough 5G RAN hardware and software, with increasing convergence between fixed broadband and mobile use cases and operators. Network operators are accelerating adoption of virtualization and densification, changing their reliance on proprietary hardware to a focus on software and cloud architecture. These trends are expected to provide Airspan with an opportunity to take market share from the legacy network providers and enter new high growth market segments such as private 5G and fixed wireless access. 

Link for Job Applications

Candidates interested in working for Airspan and filling available positions can go to www.airspan.com/careers and apply online.