Overview (Altiostar, subsidiary of Rakuten)
- Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
- Offices: India, United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Italy
- Years in operation: Founded in 2011
- Key personnel: Ashraf M. Dahod (President and Chief Executive Officer)
- Market segment: Radio access network
- Key proposition: Open virtual RAN software
- Number of employees: 1000-5000
- Market cap/ Valuation: Rakuten acquired Altiostar for more than $1 billion in 2021
Market context
Altiostar, a Rakuten Symphony Company, offers open virtualized RAN (Open vRAN) software for 4G and 5G networks, which supports open interfaces and virtualizes the baseband unit to create a disaggregated multi-vendor, web-scale, cloud-native mobile network. To swiftly expand the network and lower the Total Cost of Ownership, operators can add intelligence, quickly modify the network for diverse services, and automate operations. To enable a diversified Open RAN supply chain, Altiostar engages with a growing community of partners. The Altiostar O-RAN compatible Open vRAN system has been deployed around the world, including in Japan with Rakuten Mobile, the world’s first cloud-native commercial-scale mobile network.
Journey to Open RAN:
| Altiostar was founded in 2011 by Ashraf M.Dahod (co-founder of Starnet Networks, a start-up acquired by Cisco in 2009). | |
| Altiostar emerged from stealth in late 2014, having raised $70 million in investment since 2012. | |
| Its first product was a virtualised Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) solution that used Ethernet instead of dark fibre to connect radios and controllers. | |
| Following this, the company released a virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) product in 2015. | |
| In 2017, introduced the Open vRAN Development Platform, enabling independent radio equipment manufacturers to create a vRAN solution based on Altiostar technology. | |
| Cisco, Rakuten Mobile, Qualcomm Ventures, Telefonica, and Tech Mahindra, among others, have invested $357.5 million in the company since its inception. | |
| Rakuten acquired Altiostar for more than $1 billion |
Open RAN capabilities
1. Comprehensive product portfolio
Altiostar’s Open vRAN 5G solution consists of gNB virtual Centralised Unit (vCU), gNB virtual Distributed Unit (vDU), virtual EMS (vEMS), 3rd party O-RAN compliant Radio Units (O-RU), and antennas. Altiostar can collaborate with operators to deliver a full radio product range, including macro cells, small cells, and massive MIMO solutions in a variety of frequency bands and configurations, all managed by the Altiostar Open vRAN software solution.
The vendor’s network management software is a standards-compliant system that includes a robust set of tools for managing, configuring, monitoring, optimising, and troubleshooting network elements deployed with Altiostar open vRAN solutions. It has 3GPP IRP-compliant OSS interfaces as well as scripting capability. It also provides system integration services. Altiostar is a trusted advisor for End-to-End Open RAN solution design, certification, integration, and support.
2. Expanding R&D capabilities to stay ahead of the competition
United Kingdom: Its development lab is in one of the world’s most active RAN development hotspots, Weybridge, south of London, in 2012. With the Altiostar software, the lab can test remote radio unit (RRU) integration. Altiostar also employed additional employees in June 2021 to support expanded software development, customer support, and testing activities at its UK-based open virtual radio access network (open vRAN) technical lab.
India: Altiostar is also expanding its global operations by expanding its Indian R&D. Altiostar, which has over 500 engineers at its Bengaluru development centre, plans to triple its headcount in India over the next year, according to its head of India operations.
Approach and go to market
1. Developing the partner ecosystem to expand market share
2. Widening the geographical presence through deployments and trials across regions
| Deployments Rakuten – Japan Bharti Airtel – India – deployment for 4G services (software ready for 5G) Dish Networks – USA – successful trials. Partnered with Fujitsu, Mavenir, and Altiostar to deploy 100% Open RAN compliant 5G SA network by 2023 Etisalat – UAE – successful deployment in MENA Trials Telefonica – Brazil – conducted trials. Actual deployment from 2022 and onwards Telefonica – Argentina – conducted trials. Actual deployment from 2022 and onwards Telefonica – Deutschland – trials completed in three locations. Telefonica – UK – In Jan 2021, leveraging the work done in the last 12 months, O2 conducted a successful Open RAN trial Vodafone Ziggo – Netherlands – Successful trial in Oct 2020 Movistar- Argentina – proof of concept (POC) in March 2021. This POC enables us to test live, commercial traffic and serves as an important early proof point for Open RAN technology as it evolves and matures STC- Saudi Arabia – successful trials done |
Executing a customer-centric approach by opening regional hubs close to its customers.
Why Altiostar (Rakuten Symphony) is an important player in the market
- Exhaustive product portfolio and developing more solutions to address customer demands
- Expanding R&D capabilities to support software developments, customer needs and testing activities
- Successful trials with both greenfield & brownfield operators have led to a phase of deployments across regions
- Collaborations with industry-leading players to truly create an interoperable multi-vendor RAN ecosystem
- Taking the industry towards automation, such that it requires minimum human intervention for service creation and monitoring
To find more information on Open RAN : Click here