Altiostar closes financing for open virtual RAN for 4G/5G
In early 2018, Qualcomm Ventures LLC and Tech Mahindra also participated in the C-round as investors. This financing will be used to expand Altiostar’s virtual RAN to encompass 4G and 5G products allowing telecom operators to build end-to-end web-scale cloud native networks.
“A round of this magnitude, backed by global technology leaders like Rakuten, Qualcomm Ventures and Tech Mahindra, signifies the immense 5G opportunity we have in front of us as well as the progress we have made developing our virtualized RAN technology. Our unique open vRAN is designed to improve the quality of experience, enhance spectral efficiency and significantly reduce Total Cost of Ownership. With this funding, and these strategic partners, we’re excited about our ability to deliver this breakthrough software defined solution to network operators globally as they prepare for the 5G future,” said Ashraf M. Dahod, president and chief executive officer at Altiostar.
See also: Major challenges remain for 5G deployment
In their recent report, Worldwide 5G Network Infrastructure Forecast, 2018–2022, IDC expects the largest percentage of overall investment to be spent in the RAN portion of 5G networks, which is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 156.6% between 2018 and 2022. Virtualization is seen by operators as a means to convert networks into a software-defined infrastructure that can scale with the agility required to meet this explosion of devices and applications.
Concurrently with this financing round, Altiostar has agreements solidifying its relationship with each of its strategic partners.
- Rakuten, which is collaborating with Altiostar on the development of 5G, is deploying the Altiostar virtualized RAN in their mobile network.
- Qualcomm Technologies Inc., which has entered into a development collaboration agreement with Altiostar.
- Tech Mahindra, which has signed a value-added-reseller/system integrator contract with Altiostar.
The Rakuten Group, headquartered in Japan, offers a variety of services in e-commerce, fintech, communications and digital content. After being granted spectrum by the Japanese government in early 2018, Rakuten plans to launch an innovative, end-to-end fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network in October 2019.
See also: A testing time for the future IoT
“Rakuten shares Altiostar’s vision of open, virtualized radio access networks: The Altiostar vRAN is one of the key enablers of the end-to-end cloud-native, software-defined network we will launch in Japan this year. Through our work with Altiostar, we aim to take the lead in driving RAN virtualization and disrupting the mobile industry,” said Tareq Amin, CTO of Rakuten Mobile, Inc.
See also: O-RAN Open Source Community launched
“Qualcomm Ventures’ investment in Altiostar reflects our confidence in the ability of disaggregated RAN and vRAN architectures to transform mobile networks,” said Brian Modoff, executive vice president, strategy and M&A, Qualcomm Incorporated.
“Tech Mahindra’s network service portfolio includes all aspects of building, deploying and operating radio access networks. Tech Mahindra has extended its regional services capabilities and global reach through strategic acquisitions and has a truly global presence to help provide scale to emerging technologies like Altiostar’s open vRAN,” said Manish Vyas, President, Communications, Media & Entertainment Business, & CEO, Network Services, Tech Mahindra.
https://global.rakuten.com/corp
www.qualcomm.com
www.techmahindra.com
www.altiostar.com
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