Telenor Group and Cisco signed a third collaboration agreement, as the two press-on with joint projects focused on developments in Open vRAN, B2B services, security, 5G and distributed cloud.

As part of their combined work, the two are conducting a trial of vRAN technology at Telenor’s headquarters in Norway to assess the impact of open, virtual RAN technology on operator costs and pace of service rollout.

The updated deal builds on an existing joint purpose agreement unveiled at Mobile World Congress in 2018, with the scope of the project expanded in an updated pact announced at the 2019 edition of the Barcelona-based event.

In addition to inking an updated deal, the two announced fresh financing of their WorkingGroup2 (WG2) joint venture, which develops and supplies operator-focused cloud platforms.

Additional funds being pumped into WG2 will be used to extend its 5G, IoT and private network features, and push the service to operators in Europe, North America and Asia.

The new cash was sourced from investment company Digital Alpha, the sum was not disclosed.