Verizon has now deployed over 130,000 O-RAN capable radios which includes the massive MIMO radios as part of the previously announced 15,000 O-RAN compliant virtualized cell sites with O-RAN compliant baseband units in its commercial Radio Access Network.
The deployment is part of Verizon’s multi-year upgrade of its network architecture that consolidates, simplifies, and modernizes its core and access networks. Virtualization and orchestration are key components of this modernization. Along with many vendor partners, Verizon has been leading the charge of the design, development, and deployment of virtualized Radio Access Network technology. This move to a cloud native, container-based, virtualized architecture has led to more flexibility, faster delivery of services, greater scalability, and significant cost efficiency in the network.
Verizon said the deployment underscores its commitment to driving O-RAN standards and technology in the industry.
“Verizon is fully supportive of O-RAN technology and is focused on commercializing an operationally sound O-RAN architecture,” said Adam Koeppe, SVP of Technology Planning at Verizon. “Our commitment to developing O-RAN standards and to deploying compliant equipment in our active Radio Access Network is helping to drive the industry forward which will result in a variety of tangible benefits for our customers who expect leading-edge technology from Verizon.”
- Early in 2019 Verizon announced the virtualization of the core network with a cloud-native, containerized architecture.
- In 2020, it announced that the achievement of fully virtualized baseband functions – the heaviest portion of computing on the Radio Access Network.
