Mavenir starts 5G Open RAN manufacturing in India

US-based telecom gear maker Mavenir said that the company has started the manufacturing of 2G, 4G, and 5G Open RAN (radio access network) for its OpenBeam portfolio in India, suited for Indian and international frequency bands. 

Radio access network (RAN) is a key component of a wireless telecommunications system that connects individual devices to other parts of a network. The Open RAN radio solutions, such as OpenBeam, are available across all frequency bands and can be used for a "wide range of use cases, including enterprises and public settings across urban or rural environments", the company said in a statement.  

"We are embarking on manufacturing state of art radios for India and world. We are motivated to undertake such an investment in India due to all the steps taken by the government of India in last one year in the manufacturing and building the local ecosystem of telecom,” said Sanjay Bakaya, Country Head-India & Regional Vice President-India & South Asia, Mavenir in a statement. 

5G New Radio, the global standard for a unified and more capable 5G wireless air interface, delivers significantly faster and more responsive mobile broadband experiences, and connects a multitude of new industries. Toward that end, Mavenir’s radio options address the needs of the communication service providers (CSPs) to be agile and cost-efficient with low power consumption, low wind load, and built with integrated intelligence and automation. It is also designed for the growing needs of private enterprises and public networks, and supports both new and legacy radio access technologies.  

“Our manufacturing partner network is very well positioned for the sustainable and rapid scaling of Open RAN volumes and made in India requirements. With these new production sites coming online, we have reached another important milestone in our strategy to expand and evolve the Open RAN ecosystem,” said Ramnik Kamo, EVP, CIO and CPO of Mavenir. 

Mavenir has been at the forefront of the open RAN movement, and very recently delivered and deployed cloud-native 5G converged packet core to Deutsche Telekom for its German business, ensuring an open architecture approach. 

Meanwhile, the initiative is in line with the government's Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) vision, the company said. With this, Mavenir also joins telecom gear vendors like Ericsson and Nokia that are manufacturing equipment in India. 

In December 2020, Nokia started production of the next-generation 5G equipment dubbed as the Nokia AirScale mMIMO solution at its Chennai facility, being the first company to manufacture the 5G New Radio in India. 

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson also said it is investing in India under the government’s production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom equipment manufacturing. The company said that its production facility in Pune with Jabil as its contract manufacturing partner will cater to both local and global markets.