Telefonica inks MoU with Ericsson for Cloud RAN evolution

Ericsson of Sweden and Spanish telecoms heavyweight Telefonica have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate the adoption towards an increasingly open network built upon the equipment maker’s Cloud RAN architecture. The pair will also explore how to deploy Cloud RAN sites with ‘a high degree of automation, adopting approaches in line with best practice in cloud ecosystems’. The plans reportedly include how to leverage ‘rApps in RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and service management and orchestration (SMO) architecture to enhance radio access network (RAN) solutions’.

In a press release, the Spanish telco noted: ‘Ericsson Cloud RAN is based on an open, standardised architecture for worldwide connectivity and is fully compatible with the deployed Ericsson Radio System portfolio, which will help service providers to evolve their networks into their architecture of choice.’