Mavenir CMO Stefano Cantarelli (pictured) accused its big-name vendor rivals of providing operators with a scaled-down version of virtualisation technology, which is failing to convince some of the benefits of making the switch.

Speaking at the opening of the company’s Centre of Innovation in Stockholm, Sweden (home to network giant Ericsson), Cantarelli said the combination of many operators’ early experiences of switching network functions to a software-based platform, and risk-aversion around new technology, was hampering adoption despite the business case.

“A lot of operators today think they have done virtualisation but in reality what they have done is just put some software on a standard server and that’s it,” he said.

“They don’t hold the lifecycle management, orchestration, or capability to scale up and down in there. The reason is because they have done that through the top three, four or five guys [major network vendors] who have no interest in going in that direction because they are still selling a lot of hardware.”

Cantarelli added there was also a mindset change needed to fully embrace virtualisation, which Mavenir believes achieves cost savings and allows for a more agile infrastructure.

He told Mobile World Live it: “Doesn’t mean only a new technology, but a new organisation and a new way to work within the operator. That’s the most difficult part. They need to fully embrace it 100 per cent.”

The comments came as the company cut the ribbon at its new innovation centre in Stockholm. Mavenir aims to use the new unit to promote the benefits of virtualised RAN and open access infrastructure to service providers, enterprises and partners in the region.