Overview
- Headquarters: Richardson, Texas, USA
- Offices: Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, India, South Korea
- R&D locations: Norway, Poland, South Korea, India
- Years in operation:
- Mavenir Systems founded in 2005
- The existing entity is a result of the merger between Xura, Mitel Mobility, and Ranzure Networks concluded in 2017
- Key personnel: Pradeep Kohli (President and CEO)
- Market: Radio access network
- Key proposition: End to end cloud-native software provider
- Employees – 4000 – 5000 employees
- Market cap/valuation: + $1.7billion
Journey to Open RAN
| 2017 – Mavenir announced 5G core network and vRAN solutions, to be an end-to-end 4G LTE and 5G solution provider. |
| 2019 – Launch of fully virtualised 4G/5G Open RAN solutions |
| 2020 – Acquisition of ip.access (a leading small cell solution provider) to add 2G and 3G capabilities to the Open RAN portfolio and a full suite of enterprise radio solutions |
| 2022 – Launch of new product portfolio of remote radio units OpenBeam, compliant with the O-RAN standard and spanning micro, macro, millimeter wave (mmWave), and massive MIMO (mMIMO) |
Open RAN capabilities
1. Comprehensivness of product portfolio
Mavenir offers a comprehensive end-to-end product portfolio across every layer of the network infrastructure stack. It leads the way in evolved, cloud-native networking solutions enabling innovative and secure experiences for the end consumer.
Mavenir provides vRAN software that resides in both the cloud and the system integration capability to integrate the whole solution end to end. It recently announced the availability of remote radio units (spanning from micro to massive MIMO) manufactured by ODM partners but marketed as Mavenir units. The first version will support US C-Band frequencies, while future versions will support other mid-band frequencies.
2. R&D capabilities
Mavenir recently opened a Development Centre in Swindon, United Kingdom, to develop Open RAN Radio software. The investment is to grow Mavenir’s business in the UK.
The new Open RAN Software and System Design Centre in Swindon aims to widen the future development of Open RAN-based products by focusing on software and system design for Open RAN Radio Units.
A critical project:
- Creation of Open-Source software for the Open RAN O-RAN 7.2 compliant Remote Radio Unit’s Control Board and Management Plane (RRU).
This software will be available to all RRU makers to speed up Open RAN RRU availability in various versions and frequencies while offering a standard management interface.
Acquisition of ip. access (2020 and expansion in 2021)– Mavenir works with Vodafone UK to develop a 4G Open RAN small cell to deliver improved in-building cellular coverage for mid-sized enterprise customers. Meanwhile, Mavenir also leverages the small cell and enterprise R&D capabilities it gained with the acquisition of ip. access last year.
Approach and go to market
Partner ecosystem
Deployments and trials
| Deployments Rakuten – Japan NTT Docomo – Japan – Partner to accelerate Open RAN deployment globally to serve the diverse needs of operators Vodafone Idea – India – Deployed solutions for 4G and successful trials data and VoLTE call on 4G small cell Open RAN solution at the Vodafone Lab in Newbury National Telecom public – Thailand – National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT) deployed an Open RAN-based private 5G network in Ban Chang, delivering end-to-end 5G smart cities solution. Deutsche Telekom – Europe – Deployment of Open vRAN, integrated with massive MIMO (mMIMO) Active Antenna Units (AAU) Vodafone – United Kingdom – Deployed solution for 4G sites Dish Networks – USA – Multi-year agreement, to provide cloud-native Open RAN software MTN – Mozambique – Deployment of Open RAN solutions by the end of 2021 in collaboration with other leading players Axiata – Sri Lanka / Malaysia / Indonesia – Successful deployments using Evenstar 4G radios Trials Bharti Airtel – India – 5G field trials in the mid-band and mmWave Telefonica – Brazil – Conducted trials for 4G and 5G Orange – France – Trials for 5G standalone end to end cloud network |
Why Mavenir is an important player in the market
- Expanding the product portfolio through new product offerings in partnership (such as the massive MIMO radio units) and acquisitions.
- Investing in R&D (part of the $500 million invested by the Koch group) to shape products for different verticals while focusing on automation and AI for the customer’s benefit.
- Successful deployments by the vendor and trials at different labs across geographies make Mavenir one of the leading players in the ORAN market
- Exhaustive partner ecosystem to help communication service providers benefit from the variety of deployment scenarios.
- Focus on different markets to grow its presence. Key markets include Europe, USA. APAC contributes approx. 15-20 % to the overall revenues, which the company plans to increase over 30% in the coming future.
Abbreviations:
- RAN: Radio Access Network
- VRAN: Virtual Radio Access Network
- ORAN: Open Radio Access Network
- mmWave: Millimetre wave
- mMIMO: Massive Multiple Input and Multiple Output
- ODM: Original Design Manufacturer
- RRU: Remote Radio Unit
- AAU: Active Antenna Unit
Interested in learning about other vendors leading in Open RAN, visit our report on Altiostar (Rakuten Symphony).
For more information on Open RAN: Click here