Virgin Media O2 selected vendor Mavenir for an open RAN deployment, as the operator makes strides in adopting more flexible and cloud-native infrastructure while boosting the UK’s goal to widen vendor options.

The operator stated Mavenir will serve as its open RAN vendor and primary integrator, providing open virtual RAN (vRAN) to sites across Virgin Media O2’s network.

Mavenir has previously worked with the operator in its core network but this new access network deal appears to come at the expense of rival vendors NEC and Rakuten Symphony (which were involved in earlier trials).

A Virgin Media O2 representative declined to comment on the scale or timing of the rollout.

Virgin Media O2’s move ties in with a major drive across the UK to widen its pool of infrastructure vendors and adopt more flexible architecture.

Last month, a UK government-backed open RAN testing facility opened for equipment vendors to evaluate interoperability of products.

UK authorities are backing open RAN following a decision to ban Huawei from 5G infrastructure, with operators currently in the process of removing its kit from networks.

Virgin Media O2 explained Mavenir’s open vRAN product was built from the ground up to be cloud native, providing deployment benefits, a vendor-agnostic architecture and using the operator’s network infrastructure assets.

Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2, said extending a collaboration with Mavenir for the first time will help it establish a future-proof open vRAN offering, “unlocking the benefits of a multi-vendor open interface while allowing us to rapidly benefit from an end-to-end network solution”.

The deal is a major boost to Mavenir following reports late last week it slashed its US marketing department.

Major rival Vodafone UK has already deployed 16 open RAN sites, with it aiming to employ the approach in 30 per cent of its European sites by 2030.