The New South Wales (NSW) Telco Authority selected NEC to build the initial phase of a 5G innovation laboratory, aiming to work with public safety agencies to prove interoperability and develop related mobile broadband applications.

NEC will design, supply and install its cloud native, fully containerised 5G core on the public cloud, and provide open RAN virtualised, centralised and distributed units, open radio units and customer premises equipment.

The vendor stated the telecoms authority plans to test cloud native and open RAN technologies in line with the Australian state’s policies.

It also will provide emergency service organisations with the mobile broadband capacity.

NEC stated the laboratory “will run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide an immersive 5G testbed experience in the cloud”.

Naohisa Matsuda, GM of 5G strategy and business at NEC, stated as the industry moves towards “a more 5G-centric era, we look forward to leveraging this partnership to address Australia’s digital divide and hel drive cutting-edge 5G innovation”.

NEC noted it is a long-term strategic partner to the NSW Telco Authority, providing wireless backhaul equipment for a public safety network programme.