Following the announcement in October 2023 of the first 4G calls made on a joint Open RAN network in Romania, Orange and Vodafone announce that they have successfully extended their pilot project to certain rural areas in Romania, including virtualized RAN technology Fully integrated 2G (vRAN), an innovation that represents an international first for a common operational network (shared RAN).

This achievement represents an important step towards the cloud migration of radio access networks, which will enable network operators to consider moving their entire traditional network to fully virtualized 2G/4G/5G RANs in line with European requirements, particularly in areas where the closure of 3G networks has been done or is imminent. Virtualization of 2G networks represents a major advance and opportunity for operators, removing the obligation to maintain traditional 2G networks built on specialized hardware, as well as operating virtualized 4G/5G networks as an overlay network.

In the last six months, both operators have managed to accumulate local operational experience in managing an active Open RAN network that is used in real operating conditions, which has contributed to increasing confidence in the maturity of virtualized networks. This observation period enabled a comprehensive comparison between Open RAN and traditional RAN networks and demonstrated similar performance between the two options.

Using Open RAN in a real environment allowed both operators to benefit from the advantages offered by this solution, such as a high degree of automation and reduced implementation time. Open RAN technology decouples software from hardware functionality, making it easier to remotely upgrade mobile base stations with new features and services, faster and more cost-effectively. Also, with RAN sharing, operators get more freedom and autonomy in managing their own virtualized RAN software on a shared cloud infrastructure, while network operating costs are shared. This approach reduces the need for site visits due to a greater level of network automation and allows operators to differentiate themselves while maintaining the cost and energy savings associated with RAN sharing.

Marius Maican, Technology Director in Orange Romania, said: “This first development of an operational Open RAN network in Romania represents an important step for Orange in its transition to more agile and automated, cloud-native networks. Orange will capitalize on this successful pilot to develop in the near future a center of expertise in Romania, which will support large-scale implementations of Open RAN on the entire Orange network in Europe in the coming years.”

Nicolae Vîlceanu, Network Director at Vodafone Romania, said: “With a focus on customer experience, we will use the Open RAN opportunity to move to cloud native networks. Open RAN supports faster innovation and the development of new features and services because it allows more vendors to develop the RAN space. This gives telecom operators a competitive edge and offers customers advanced solutions. We are delighted to join forces with Open RAN partners to continue development for a future-proof digital society.”