NTT Docomo and Nokia argued they had accelerated the commercialisation and global expansion of open RAN following laboratory trials.

In a statement, the vendor explained its AirScale baseband was integrated and tested with third-party radio units, which will enable Docomo to select independent combinations of hardware and software to optimise its network.

Sadayuki Abeta, GM of Docomo’s RAN Development Department, stated it is actively driving standardisation and commercialisation, and claimed to be the first operator in the world to deploy multi-vendor open RAN equipment for its 5G network.

Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, believes open RAN technology will “enrich the mobile ecosystem” with new capabilities and business models.

Docomo is a strong supporter of open RAN: it established a collaborative coalition of international technology companies earlier this year.

Last week, Docomo and NEC released details of standalone 5G interoperability testing using open RAN specification and radio units from different manufacturers.