1&1 in Germany launches open RAN network

German company 1&1 announced the launch of its cloud-native mobile service based on the open RAN standards. The company claims to be the world’s first by introducing an open RAN system that is based on cloud and direct access to 5G and 4G wireless technologies.

In addition to the initial three antenna sites situated in Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe the construction of 50 radio masts in cities like Hamburg, Essen, Duesseldorf, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Munich and Freiburg is now complete. 1&1 stated that it has equipped these radio masts with an antenna that are capable of gigabit speeds and connected via fibre-optic backhaul with local edge data centers located within a short distance to ensure optimal performance.

1&1 collaborates with Japanese company Rakuten to develop the Open RAN infrastructure. Other providers include servers made by Dell and Supermicro. They have also routers from Cisco, software from Mavenir and Altiostar ad well ass antennas made by NEC and Communications Components (CCI).

1&1 began its first fixed-wireless 5G services for customers by the end of 2022, and plans to open the network to mobile service at the end of this summer.