Virgin Media O2 said the Mavenir’s O-RAN system will consist of fully virtualized L1, L2 vRAN SW and will operate on Intel Xeon scalable processors

U.K. telecom operator Virgin Media O2 has selected U.S. company Mavenir as its Open RAN (O-RAN) vendor.

In a release, the telco noted that Mavenir will also be the prime integrator, providing its Open virtualized Radio Access Network (Open vRAN) solution for sites on Virgin Media O2’s network.

Also, Virgin Media O2 will work with Mavenir to deploy a scalable Open vRAN solution as part of its network evolution plans. Mavenir’s Open vRAN solution is built from the ground up to be cloud-native, with fully containerized microservices allowing it to be deployed easily on any cloud, the company said. The vRAN solution provides a vendor-agnostic and future-proof architecture, Virgin Media O2 said.

The U.K. carrier said that the Mavenir’s Open RAN system will consist of fully virtualized L1, L2 vRAN SW and will operate on Intel Xeon scalable processors, along with Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 and Intel 800 series Ethernet adapters. The delivery will also feature Mavenir’s OpenBeam radios including massive MIMO, third- party O-RAN based Radio Units (O-RU) for open Fronthaul, network monitoring and optimization.

Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2, said: “Through digitalizing our networks, we’re seamlessly integrating our infrastructure to get more value from our existing assets. Extending our collaboration with Mavenir to the RAN for the first time will help us establish a future-proof Open vRAN architecture, unlocking the benefits of a multi-vendor open interface while allowing us to rapidly benefit from an end-to-end network solution.”

“Mavenir’s Open vRAN cloud-native approach presents new pathways for automated networks to deliver on the use cases and data demands of today and beyond – driving network elasticity, flexibility and best-in-class automation. The Mavenir OpenBeam radio portfolio fully complements Virgin Media O2’s full spectrum requirements and we look forward to playing an active role in unlocking network automation and openness in the RAN,” said Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO at Mavenir.

Last month, Virgin Media O2 and Ericsson announced they will boost 4G and 5G coverage and capacity to major cities and towns across the U.K. as part of a renewed network partnership agreement. The two companies have agreed on a new contract to deploy the latest products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Additional service upgrades and small cell solutions are included as part of the network modernization.

Ericsson said that Virgin Media O2 customers in major U.K. cities including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast will benefit from enhanced mobile capacity, improved coverage and faster speeds.

Virgin Media O2’s 5G network reached 1,600 towns and cities across the country as of the end of last year. In its latest earnings release, the telco said it was on track to deliver 5G services to 50% of the U.K. population during 2023.

Virgin Media O2 had launched services in June 2021 as a joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica in the U.K.