Reliance Jio, its wholly-owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation, and chipmaker Qualcomm are developing 5G solutions based on the open and interoperable radio access network (RAN) architecture. Reliance Industries, which owns Jio, claimed that this will fast track the rollout of indigenous 5G networks in India. Open RAN essentially allows building parts of a mobile network using hardware and software developed by different vendors. Using Qualcomm’s technology, Jio has developed a 5G RAN product which has achieved over 1 Gbps of throughput, which is the actual amount of data that is sent or received over a communication link. This product has already been tested by a tier-1 carrier in the US, Mathew Oommen, president of Reliance Jio Infocomm said while speaking at the Qualcomm 5G Summit on Tuesday. He didn’t reveal the name of the US carrier he was referring to. It was recently reported that Jio is working to launch 5G handsets for as low as ₹5,000, an apparent attempt by the company to reach people who’re still on 2G networks, and as a result outside Jio’s ecosystem which doesn’t support older technologies like 2G and 3G. What is open RAN? Open RAN is an industry term for open radio access network architecture. As per an Ericosson blog post, this includes RAN with open and interoperable interfaces, virtual RAN, and Big Data and AI-enabled RAN, among others. An industry alliance called the O-RAN Alliance is responsible for publishing new specifications for RAN, and release open source software for its members. Airtel,…
