Viettel Claims First High-Quality 5G Open RAN
Vietnamese telecommunications company Viettel claims it has deployed the world's first 5G Open RAN network that matches the performance and quality of systems from leading Tier-1 equipment suppliers.
- This deployment is a close collaboration with U.S.-based Qualcomm, utilizing its X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card for the Distributed Units (DUs) and the QRU100 5G RAN Platform for the Massive MIMO Radio Units. This partnership, which began in May 2022, integrates Viettel's in-house developed software with Qualcomm's hardware. - The initial rollout plan involves deploying over 300 Open RAN sites across several Vietnamese provinces by the first quarter of 2025, with a target of 2,000 stations for the full year. Viettel plans for thousands more sites as part of a nationwide and international expansion. - Viettel's research and development arm, Viettel High Tech (VHT), was responsible for developing significant portions of the core software and equipment for the network. This positions Viettel not just as a network operator but as an end-to-end 5G systems supplier for public and private networks. - The move is part of a broader geopolitical trend where Open RAN is promoted by the U.S. and its allies as a way to create a more diverse and secure telecommunications supply chain, reducing dependence on a small number of traditional vendors. The U.S. government actively supports Open RAN adoption in the Asia-Pacific region through funding and technical assistance. - This project serves as a launchpad for Viettel's international ambitions to export its "Made by Viettel" 5G products. The company is targeting markets in India and the Middle East and has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Emirates Integrated Telecommunications (du) to test its solutions in the UAE. - The technical architecture utilizes 32T32R Massive MIMO radio units and employs inline accelerators to offload compute-intensive baseband processing from the server's CPUs. This approach is designed to reduce capital expenditure and improve power efficiency. - While this Open RAN deployment is significant, Viettel has also signed contracts with Ericsson and Nokia to expand and upgrade its 5G and 4G networks, indicating a multi-vendor strategy. Reports suggest that Ericsson and Nokia may still account for two-thirds of the total 5G deployment share.
