BT has announced the details of an Open RAN trial with Nokia in the UK city of Hull.
The company will install Nokia’s RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) for Open RAN across many sites to enhance network connectivity for customers of its mobile network, EE.
BT will also open an Open RAN innovation centre at its Adastral Park facility later this year to provide opportunities for vendors to develop equipment and give a platform for open architecture progress.
BT chief architect Neil McRae said: “Our Open RAN trial with Nokia is one of many investments we are making to boost the performance of our market-leading 4G and 5G EE network and deliver an even better service to our customers.
“Our high performance, high efficiency radio access equipment, provided by the major global vendors, has enabled us to roll-out 4G and now 5G at scale, with the confidence that our customers will get the best network experience possible.”
Nokia SVP, radio access networks PLM Mark Atkinson added: “Nokia is investing in Open RAN capabilities to enable a robust telecom ecosystem with strong network performance and security.
“An open and programmable RAN enables many new advanced capabilities to be introduced that can automatically optimise the 5G network. I look forward to seeing how this project develops.”
