Rakuten Mobile and Telefónica sign a collaboration agreement for the development of openran

Madrid, Spain, and Tokyo, Japan, September 16, 2020 - Rakuten Mobile, Inc., and Telefónica , SA today announced the signing of a collaboration agreement (Memorandum of Understanding / MoU in English) to cooperate jointly in the development of OpenRAN , Core 5G and OSS ( Operations Support Systems ).

"We are delighted to collaborate with Telefónica from a joint perspective on the development of OpenRAN," said Tareq Amin, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and CTO of Rakuten Mobile. "I am confident that our agreement will serve equally well for both of us to explore the future development of the Rakuten platform ( Rakuten Communications Platform ), which will allow operators around the world to benefit from a cost-efficient mobile network architecture based on in the Cloud, safe and reliable ”.

Enrique Blanco, Chief Technology & Information Officer (CTIO) of Telefónica, commented: “Telefónica firmly believes that networks are evolving towards end-to-end virtualization through open architectures where OpenRAN is a key piece. Beyond the flexibility and simplicity it will provide, OpenRAN will change the provider ecosystem and revolutionize the current 5G industry in the medium and long term. At the same time, open and virtualized networks will lead us to a new operating model for operators. Telefonica and Rakuten Mobile have signed this MoU to evaluate and demonstrate the capacity and viability of OpenRAN architectures and to make them a reality ”.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rakuten Mobile and Telefónica plan to collaborate on the following aspects:

• Investigate and carry out pilot and laboratory tests to facilitate the development of OpenRAN architectures, including the role that Artificial Intelligence will play in mobile access networks.

• Jointly develop proposals for an optimal 5G RAN architecture and OpenRAN models as part of the telecommunications industry's efforts to achieve fast time-to-market , new benchmarks in terms of costs, as well as the benefits derived from the software implementation of RAN functionalities.

• Collaborate in the construction of an open and cost-efficient 5G ecosystem, based on open interfaces, that allows accelerating the maturity of 5G with global roaming .

• Develop a joint purchasing scheme for hardware and software associated with OpenRAN, which will help increase the volume of purchases and generate economies of scale, including CUs ( Central Units ), DUs ( Distributed Units ), RRUs ( Remote Radio Units ) and equipment network and / or software components that are necessary.
  
  In addition, both companies will work equally on the Core 4G / 5G and on the OSS technology used by Rakuten Mobile in Japan and its platform ( Rakuten Communications Platform ).

  
  

  About Rakuten Mobile

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is a company of the Rakuten Group dedicated to mobile communications, -as a mobile network operator (MNO) and as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) -, the ICT business and the energy business . Through continuous innovation efforts and the deployment of advanced technology, Rakuten Mobile aims to redefine the expectations of the mobile telecommunications industry in order to provide attractive and useful services that respond to different customer needs.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the world. The company offers fixed and mobile connectivity, as well as a wide range of digital services for residential and business customers. With 342 million customers, Telefónica operates in Europe and Latin America. Telefónica is a 100% listed company and its shares are listed on the Spanish Stock Market and on the New York and Lima Stock Exchanges.

For more information about Telefónica: www.telefonica.com

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