UK operator Virgin Media O2 switched-on the first live commercial sites in its open RAN deployment with NEC and Rakuten Symphony, after the completion of a series of lab trials into the new network architecture.

In a statement, the trio noted several macro sites in the Northamptonshire region of the UK had been activated to take commercial traffic. It followed trials with various partners which began last year.

The move marks the latest development by one of the country’s operators to introduce greater diversity in vendors supplying network kit, an ambition frequently cited and partly funded by UK authorities since slapping a ban on Huawei 5G kit in 2020.

NEC highlighted the operator’s multi-vendor deployment was notable for being in a brownfield network and “baselined on the existing Telco Cloud supply chain to maximise future synergies”.

The vendor is the system integrator in the deployment with Rakuten Symphony providing the open RAN software, edge cloud, and radio management and operations system.

Virgin Media CTO Jeanie York said the activation of the sites “demonstrates the potential of the multi-vendor open RAN model”.