Etisalat partners Rakuten to develop open RAN

Etisalat, one of the world’s largest telco service providers operating in 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, is working with Rakuten Mobile to jointly develop a reference blueprint for mobile broadband networks based on the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP)

In an agreement recently signed with Rakuten Mobile, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat will explore and co-develop a mobile network reference design based on open standards. Through Rakuten Mobile’s RCP, Etisalat’s customer base of more than 154 million subscribers are positioned to realize the potential of a cloud-native, software-centric and fully virtualized and containerized platform.

Hatem Bamatraf, Chief Technology Officer, Etisalat International said
“This is a unique opportunity for Etisalat and Rakuten Mobile to co-explore and further develop next generation mobile networks based on RCP that will allow Etisalat to leverage a cost-effective, cloud-native, OpenRAN based mobile network architecture that is secure, scalable and reliable,” explained Hatem Bamatraf, Chief Technology Officer, Etisalat International.

This announcement for advancing Open RAN technology follows similar recent agreements with Madrid-based Telefónica and Riyadh-based stc, both signed in late 2020. Through its collaboration with Rakuten Mobile, Etisalat will continue its drive to deliver groundbreaking network performance with a rich user experience, while also becoming a mobile operator to watch in the era of Open RAN.