Following a recapitalisation initiative in June, the vendor restructured its organisation into two segments: packet core, messaging and security; and voice, radio access technologies.

Previously, Mavenir stated it was scaling back its efforts on radio unit hardware due to the slow uptake of open RAN.

The company’s new roadmap is designed to accelerate the transition from AI-integrated networks where AI augments specific functions, to AI-native networks. The latter includes embedding intelligence into the core architecture for full automation and real-time optimisation.

As part of the new operating model, Mavenir appointed employees to key roles effective immediately: Uli Dopfer as EVP and CFO, overseeing finance, strategic planning, and HR; Michael Cooper,  EVP and GM of packet core, security and messaging, and digital enablement R&D; Santhosh Kumar, EVP and GM of platform and cloud, platform engineering and cloud transformation; Sachin Karkala, EVP and GM of IMS and RAN with a focus on AI-native evolution; Dejan Leskaroski, EVP and CRO; Michael Cooper, EVP and GM of packet core, security and messaging and digital enablement R&D; Santhosh Kumar, EVP and GM of platform and cloud, leading platform engineering and cloud transformation; and Sachin Karkala, EVP and GM of IMS and RAN.

Mavenir also noted EVP and CFO Terry Hungle; Bahram Jalalizadeh, EVP, head of sales and marketing; Ashok Khuntia, president of core networks; and Anup Mahajan, SVP of engineering, will leave their jobs at the end of January 2026.

Hungle will become special advisor to the board of directors while Jalalizadeh will continue as a consultant. 

Mavenir president and CEO Pardeep Kohli stated with the new executives and sharper strategic focus the company is “well-positioned to deliver innovation and exceptional value for our customers”.

The post Mavenir narrows focus, expands leadership team appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Brandon Larson, SVP & GM of Mavenir’s Cloud, AI & IMS Business Strategy, discusses how best to unlock telco value in the agentic AI era.

The post Partner Interview: Mavenir appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The deployment will use Mavenir’s cloud-native converged packet core running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Iridium’s satellite-terrestrial NB-IoT integration and future D2D offerings.

The vendor’s suite of packet core network functions includes session management, user plane, policy control, subscriber management, network exposure, and messaging capabilities, all designed for high availability and geo-redundancy across AWS regions.

Planned for commercial launch in 2026, Iridium’s NTN Direct service will support roaming use cases like messaging, tracking, and monitoring for IoT, and industrial device applications such as international cargo logistics, remote utility monitoring, smart agriculture, and emergency response.

Unlike rivals AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global, Iridium is banking on a 3GPP-based approach for D2D communications because it makes use of its existing assets and industry standard chipsets.

Financial terms and the length of the partnership were not available.

Mavenir was among the vendors building EchoStar’s open RAN, greenfield 5G network, which is being decommissioned following the sale of wireless spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T.

In June, Mavenir and private equity company Siris Capital signed a recapitalisation transaction with the vendor’s lenders to erase over $1.3 billion in debt while securing $300 million in new financing.

The post Iridium picks Mavenir to power NTN for D2D service appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Ayed (pictured, right) told Mobile World Live (MWL) the VodafoneThree deployment as part of the Small Cells O-RAN in Dense Areas (SCONDA) project established a blueprint for future brownfield open RAN rollouts in urban settings and talked us through the process.

SCONDA is a consortium formed to develop a model for open RAN small cell deployments in dense areas. Ayed explained the number of companies involved posed certain challenges because each “has to play their part”.

“We optimised the machinery of delivery by splitting the roles”, he said, highlighting the step change the approach represents compared with when “MNOs used to do it all by themselves”.

Ayed said the old ways are not suitable in the scope of a project like SCONDA: “we have to divide and conquer”.

“Everybody has their own speciality that they bring to the table and that’s how collaboration happens.”

Ayed touched on the challenges beyond the technical, explaining partners must be closely aligned and “have mutual trust”.

SCONDA update
MWL attended the launch of the SCONDA scheme in early 2024. At the time, city councillor Paul Leinster explained the small cell project was the latest step in Digital Glasgow, a programme to boost access to technology and connectivity to open economic opportunities and update public services.

The pre-merger 3 UK was initially tasked with deploying 20 small cells around the city centre, with a target of employing more than 50 sites in the longer term.

During an update in Glasgow on 23 June, Leinster (pictured, right) said the deployment progress is “another milestone in our journey to become the most innovative and connected city region across these islands”.

He said digital initiatives are reaping significant benefits for Glasgow’s economy, with tech start-ups and scale-ups contributing more than £2.6 billion.

Leinster believes 5G is a key element in unlocking further gains. He noted fibre had become available to 400,000 more premises since the SCONDA project began, but argued the mobile technology fills coverage gaps “and even offers an alternative”, becoming “increasingly central to how we improve services, experiences and ultimately” quality of life.

SCONDA partner AWTG revealed the number of live sites now stands at 24 and demonstrations on site showed peak data rates of beyond 700Mb/s in the downlink and 150Mb/s up.

AWTG COO Ian Vernon said the number of active sites would stand at 32 by end-June, explaining the small cells on lampposts are one element in a project which also involved delivering an indoor network to the University of Glasgow.

The projects are running in parallel, delivering similar “throughput and, more importantly providing the use cases” for the urban 5G project, Vernon said.

Vernon emphasised the importance of achieving a brownfield open RAN deployment in a dense, urban setting, noting most previous trials had focused on rural environments because “it’s been very difficult to integrate a new technology” into existing mobile networks.

The AWTG executive evidenced his view by pointing to the evolution of mobile technologies, noting it typically took between three-and-five-years to shift between generations.

“It’s never easy for an operator to take in a new technology.”

Risk and reward
Ayed said the SCONDA project’s progress should be credited for tackling a level of complexity he argues no-one else was bold enough to address in the UK so far.

He emphasised the risk of jeopardising VodafoneThree’s existing network by employing openRAN.

“We took the risk.”

Ayed conceded there are other open RAN deployments in the UK; 3’s new partner is a proponent of the approach, but the executive echoed Vernon by noting those have mostly been in rural settings rather than urban and have not focused on integrating with existing infrastructure.

The executive explained the SCONDA project is bigger than VodafoneThree, saying the “UK is not taking enough credit for this project overall”.

Ayed noted operators in the US are highly vocal about deploying small cells in urban settings as an example of why the work in Glasgow should be heralded.

The key element is the mould the SCONDA scheme created: “If it works here, theoretically it should work anywhere”.

Ayed said the set-up “is bullet proof, it is working, we see the results”.

“It was a journey, but we got there.”

How
As Ayed explained, the SCONDA project presented challenges in terms of working with multiple partners and integration with an existing RAN.

Ayed also highlighted internal challenges for the operator, comprising some “cultural resistance”, adjustments to VodafoneThree’s transport network and work involving security.

“I think perhaps the biggest obstacle, number one is getting the architecture right from the outset, so basically you don’t start to do an open network and try to fix it backwards.”

“Think ahead, build an architecture which supports the co-existence of legacy and open RAN. Get the buy in from your team.”

“Take your time and plan the proper architecture before you jump in”.

Ayed believes network operators have hit hurdles in past attempts to deploy small cells because of the number of elements involved. These include a need for local authority approvals, sourcing fibre connections and dealing with the microwave elements: “trying to deal with all the approvals was a nightmare, it’s not our expertise” as operators.

As such, the key step after defining the architecture was sourcing partners which could handle the individual elements required to deliver an open RAN small cell set-up.

In addition to AWTG, the SCONDA project involves connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service specialist Freshwave, consultancy Accenture and software provider Mavenir.

The project is funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and counts the University of Surrey, University of Glasgow, the Scotland 5G Centre and network management company PI Works among the list of collaborators.

Ayed explained automated network management is a vital element in making the SCONDA model work. In fact, he believes it would be “impossible” to operate the open RAN set up without it.

He highlighted Mavenir’s contribution, explaining it would have been difficult to add the company to its list of mainstream RAN vendors without automation and orchestration.

As an established operator, the list of current vendors spanned big names Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei and Samsung across multiple generations of mobile technology.

The SCONDA model puts distributed units (DUs) in a separate data centre to the centralised units (CU), with radios installed on lampposts.

Ayed said the legwork put in by the SCONDA collaborators means the model could now be swiftly deployed in other cities by building fresh clusters of DUs.

The approach provides the flexibility and scalability required to make economic sense of the set-up, Ayed said.

He acknowledged work is ongoing, but said the “more we do it, the more we feel the gain in terms of economies of scale and cost efficiencies”.

The post Feature: VodafoneThree sets brownfield open RAN mould appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Trump Mobile goes for gold with 5G service launch

What happened: US President Donald Trump lifted the lid on Trump Mobile, a flashy gold-finish smartphone set to arrive later this year, alongside a 5G service backed by MVNO agreements with major US carriers.

Why it matters: The Android 15 powered smartphone will retail at $499, featuring a fingerprint sensor and AI-based face unlock. The mobile service will be powered by the country’s three major cellular carriers – AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US. During the announcement, Donald Trump Jr. positioned the offering as an all-American alternative; “We’re building on the movement to put America first,” he said. However, analysts have challenged claims that the smartphone will be entirely US manufactured. Leo Gebbie, principal analyst and director, Americas at CCS Insight, told BBC that the US “simply does not have the high-tech supply chain” required for domestic smartphone assembly at the moment, particularly considering the projected September release. The mobile play adds to a growing portfolio of Trump-branded products which brought in more than $600 million in revenue according to a recent financial disclosure. Meghan Faulkner, communications director of non-profit organisation Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the news outlet: “It’s unbelievable that the Trump family has created yet another way for President Trump to personally profit while in office.”

Mavenir inks debt recapitalisation deal

What happened: Mavenir struck a recapitalisation deal with private equity company Siris Capital and its existing lenders to erase more than $1.3 billion in debt, while securing $300 million in fresh funding to improve its balance sheet.

Why it matters: CEO Pardeep Kohli explained the deal enables the company to home in on software and AI-driven telecoms solutions. “With a stronger balance sheet and lower leverage, we can double down on delivering an end-to-end, AI-native telco stack,” Kohli explained, adding that this positions Mavenir for profitable growth across both core and open RAN segments. Additionally, a spokesperson for the company told MWL that Mavenir is already integrating AI capabilities into its mobile core and RAN platforms in collaboration with tech players including Intel, Nvidia, and Microsoft. The latest move comes hot on the heels of a $75 million investment in May and a $100 million fundraising round in 2023 led by Siris. It also follows concerns raised by ratings company S&P Global in late last year about Mavenir’s ability to repay a $133 million long-term loan maturing in January 2025. Chris DePuy, analyst at 650 Group said Mavenir decision to “double down on software makes sense” as it aligns with longer-term trends including a shift in roaming and revenue contribution in the 6G era.

BT CEO hints at more job cuts on AI impact

What happened: BT Group CEO Allison Kirkby flagged the possibility of deeper job reductions than previously forecast as AI reshapes the operator’s overhaul strategy, Financial Times reported.

Why it matters: In an interview, Kirkby revealed that BT’s current cost-cutting roadmap which targets more than 40,000 job cuts and £3 billion in savings by 2030, may fall short of AI’s eventual impact. “Depending on what we learn from AI… there may be an opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade,” she stated. The operator’s original strategy, set in motion under former chief Philip Jansen in 2023, aimed to slash up to 55,000 roles. Since taking the reins in 2024, Kirkby has further pushed transformation with a sharper focus on the UK. Her latest remarks arguably spotlight the transformational role of AI in restructuring telecoms from the top down, from operations to the workforce. Although Kirkby’s leadership has remained popular amongst investors as BT shares have seen an upswing since she took the helm, her AI-first approach signals potentially precarious times ahead for employees at one of the UK’s largest telecom operators.

The post The Friday File: Trump Mobile; BT AI risk; Mavenir debt deal appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The open RAN and mobile core vendor also concluded a smaller subordinated facility provided by Siris and participating lenders.

Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli stated the company’s strengthened balance sheet and lower leverage will allow it to double down “on our software expertise and domain knowledge to deliver a comprehensive, end-to-end, AI-native telco stack, setting Mavenir up for profitable growth in both core and open RAN”.

A representative for Mavenir told Mobile World Live (MWL) the company is “already working with several third-party innovators, including Intel, Nvidia, and Microsoft, to incorporate AI-based capabilities into our Mobile Core and RAN solutions”.

The company’s current headcount is approximately 4,000 employees, according to the representative.

In late 2024, ratings agency S&P Global cast doubt on Mavenir’s ability to cover a $133 million long-term loan obligation due to mature in January.

In May 2024, Mavenir announced it lined a $75 million investment from an existing investor, which followed a $100 million fundraising round in 2023 led by Siris Capital and two new unnamed strategic investors.

While the company is known for its work in the open RAN space with operators such as AT&T, it also generates significant revenue across its packet core business, MDE billing and charging and IMS software.

In January, Kohli told MWL bookings in the recent fiscal year (the period to end-January 2025) were expected to hit at least $650 million, its second-best of all time.

Analyst view
AvidThink founder and principal Roy Chua told MWL recapitalisation provides the company with a longer runway to execute its vision on open RAN “which has seen slower uptake than expected” while continuing to extract value from other areas of operations.

“We’re seeing a desire for cloud-native and cloud-hosted cores, and portions of RAN, in the market and Mavenir’s refocus on core, voice, messaging, and data should allow them to improve their financials while biding time on open RAN,” Chua explained.

He noted there is increasing demand for flexible converged 4G and 5G core offerings in the MVNx/telecom-as-a-service sector, private wireless, and tier 2 and tier 3 operators MNO markets as evidenced by the recent announcement by  Ericsson and Google Cloud and Nokia and Ericsson offering their cores on public clouds like Amazon Web Services.

“Mavenir should benefit from this wave,” he said. “It already has multiple customers doing this like Oxio’s telecom-as-a-service offering which uses their core.”

The post Mavenir inks debt recapitalisation deal appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The Italian operator stated its network will be the first SA 5G mmWave network in Europe.

Mavenir’s core will be deployed alongside a user plane function from virtual networking software company 6Wind, which the US player stated is an industry first for interoperability, and eventual commercial deployment between session management and user plane functions from separate vendors.

The SA 5G core will deliver IP and Ethernet data units to Eolo.

Eolo CEO Guido Garrone said Mavenir’s 5G Core is futureproofed and the interoperability enables it “to choose the best partners for each element of this challenging and innovative new network”.

The operator plans to use the high band mmWave network to support its ambition to bridge Italy’s digital divide, in terms of data rates and coverage.

Eolo struck a deal with Nokia in late 2024 to use its 5G AirScale portfolio and Shikra mmWave radios.

The post Mavenir scores Italian mmWave SA 5G deal appeared first on Mobile World Live.

In late 2024, ratings agency S&P Global cast doubt on Mavenir’s ability to cover a $133 million long-term loan obligation due to mature last month, as reports swirled over a potential investment by Aramco Digital.

Apparently aware of Mavenir’s position as a bellwether for the open RAN industry and the questions over its finances, Kohli this week noted its bookings in the recent fiscal year are expected to hit at least $650 million, its second-best of all time.

“The year before we did about $430 million. We’ll definitely do higher than that,” he told Mobile World Live (MWL).

Kohli said Mavenir “approached” $750 million in 2021, but it “was a one-off”.

Mavenir’s packet core business is expected to account for $90 million to $100 million of its fiscal 2024 revenue, with open RAN on less than 25 per cent.

Its MDE billing and charging unit approached $25 million.

Kohli said Mavenir added more than 20 new customers, taking its total to more than 325.

He credits the company’s move to a disaggregated model as a factor in the figures, explaining this enabled it to integrate its software with other companies’ hardware.

Kohli noted some layoffs in the openRAN sector, but said Mavenir still has around 4,000 employees.

Mavenir’s SVP of business development John Baker left in December 2024.

“We brought our investment in the RAN space down to match what market requirements are.”

“In packet core we’ve grown quite a bit.”

Revenue diversity
Omdia analyst James Crawshaw told MWL there is a misperception Mavenir needs open RAN to survive.  

“Mavenir has a cash cow in messaging and a good position in IMS, but these are not sexy.”

“If the financiers are ever going to see an exit like an IPO or acquisition, Mavenir will need to win big in other areas.”

“It could be open RAN, or it could be packet core, security or anti-fraud, or even BSS. They have several irons in the fire.”

The CEO sees growth opportunities across AI and cloud, and the direct-to-device satellite sector, citing a deal struck with Canada-based Terrestar Solutions in 2024.

Kohli also believes there is opportunity in private networks for the mining industry.

Open RAN prospects
Dell’Oro Group forecast last month short term RAN revenue would be flat due to regional 5G coverage imbalances, slower data traffic growth and monetisation challenges weighing on the market.

Kohli agrees for open RAN, but noted there are still many 5G networks being built in Europe and India.

He also sees opportunities in smaller countries as MVNOs look to become MNOs.

“We have not announced the deal, but we got a good size business from another operator outside of US just to buy our radios to work with other people’s baseband” radios.

He expects the open RAN market to pick up in late 2026 or early 2027, as some operators phase out 4G networks.

EchoStar’s Dish Networks remains Mavenir’s biggest open RAN customer, but AT&T is adding the vendor to its ecosystem of network infrastructure providers and suppliers.

Open interfaces enables Mavenir to pair its baseband with radios from other vendors and vice-versa, though Kohli said it is seeking opportunities to sell “only the radios”.

“I think it’s getting to a point where standards are well defined. There are examples of mixing and matching, and that makes it easier for selling only the radios or only the baseband.”

Debt
Kohli stated Mavenir worked with its customers and existing investors to raise the amount needed to pay-off the debt balance due last month.

“We are comfortable and we can move forward. We have raised money every year as needed.”

The company raised a total of $250 million across two funding rounds in 2022 and another $100 million in 2023.

In May 2024, it announced a $75 million investment from an unnamed existing investor.

As for the rumour Aramco Digital may invest around $1 billion to take a minority stake in Mavenir, Kohli said an NDA prevents him commenting.

Tariffs
With US President Donald Trump levying a 10 per cent tariff on all Chinese products, Kohli said operators’ choice of vendors is limited going forward.  

“I’d say it’s only Nokia, Ericsson and us. There’s not that many options out there and people haven’t been investing in this space.”

The post Mavenir CEO points to strong 2024 as speculation swirls appeared first on Mobile World Live.

AvidThink founder and principal Roy Chua told Mobile World Live (MWL) the commercial in-service handover is likely the first, but noted there have been multiple tests between different vendor radios.

“This is a handoff between two operating gNodeB nodes from different vendors on a production network,” he explained.

Interoperability between open RAN vendors is a critical element for enabling operators to use equipment from multiple companies.

Open RAN also holds the promise of reducing dependency on a single vendor and lowering costs through the multi-vendor approach.

Mavenir and Boost Mobile explained the 3GPP Xn interface eases “communication between RAN nodes from different vendors, ensuring uninterrupted call continuity and a smooth user experience”.

They noted RAN with proprietary interfaces require operators to rely on single-source networks across regional deployments.

The Xn interface enables interconnection across open and closed RAN nodes, providing “greater interoperability and vendor flexibility across the same region”.

A Boost Mobile representative told MWL the Xn interface is live across the operator’s entire network.

The commercial in-service handover included an unnamed third-party vendor.

Mavenir was named one of Dish Wireless’ first open RAN vendors in 2020.

The announcement with Boost Mobile is another recent sign of Mavenir’s progress in the open RAN sector, including a deal with AT&T.

The post Mavenir, Boost Mobile hail first open RAN handover appeared first on Mobile World Live.

AT&T marks a much needed customer win for open RAN pioneer Mavenir, which is reported to be struggling to stay afloat.

And while Fujitsu was listed as one of the partners back when the deal was announced, industry pundits questioned whether working with one of the telecom industry’s biggest RAN vendors truly marked a move to open RAN.

AT&T COO Jeff McElfresh stated on a call with journalists the operator’s open RAN strategy always included a multi-vendor approach.

He said Ericsson is the obvious choice because of its large presence in its network, but said the vendor needed a push to open its radio architecture.

McElfresh noted “up until the deal that we drove, they were somewhat unwilling to let some disruptive technology partners into the mix”.

AT&T sought vendors that worked across brownfield open RAN deployments on networks with live traffic, according to McElfresh.

The operator inked new agreements with Fujitsu and Mavenir to develop radios specifically for crowded urban areas, according to a blog by two AT&T executives. AT&T will use small cells as part of its densification strategy for high traffic areas.

The gear includes open C-band radios (TDD 4T4R) and dual band radios (B25/B66 FDD 4T4R) that can be attached to existing utility and light poles.

The open radios will be managed by Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) through open management interfaces.

McElfresh stated deploying Fujitsu and Mavenir will also enable AT&T to better manage its spectrum as bandwidth usage increases.

“We see the strategic value of our RAN modernisation as a way to create an open environment where I can use the nation’s largest fibre network to find ways to serve traffic without the need to rely upon more licensed spectrum being available in the market,” he stated.

AT&T’s goal is to move 70 per cent of its 5G network traffic across open hardware by late 2026.

McElfresh explained the network modernisation plan includes touching every cell site in the operator’s footprint while also using drones and AI to make a digital twin of each one.

“We’re going to be able to streamline our footprint inside of our tower configurations, and we’re going to limit the number of variables, and so those give us some scale advantages for efficiency, and then obviously we’re going to lower our energy costs, because we get to kind of clean up that radio deck in a way that we haven’t really touched in ten plus years.”

Each of the cell towers will have the ability to integrate open RAN radios, either on the tower or in a service area.

Nokia swap out
McElfresh stated AT&T spent the first part of 2024 dialling in swap protocols and processes for the Nokia gear and existing Ericsson sites. It expects the entire swap out will ramp up every quarter ahead of completion in late 2026 or early 2027.

“We’ve done thousands of these [upgrades.] We’ve done enough now where our process has proven to us that we can do it with minimal disruption to service.”

The post Mavenir joins AT&T open RAN party appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Reuters reported a deal, with discussions ongoing and not certain to be finalised, would value the cloud-native network infrastructure provider at about $3 billion.

A Mavenir spokesperson declined to comment on the news when contacted by Mobile World Live.

Aramco Digital, a subsidiary of oil giant Saudi Aramco, is also looking to invest $200 million in a joint venture with Mavenir in the Middle East, Reuters stated.

Notably, CEO of Aramco Digital, Tareq Amin, has vast experience with open RAN technology, having served as CTO of Rakuten Mobile. The Japanese company became the first mobile operator to build an end-to-end virtualised telecoms infrastructure in 2020.

Debt load
S&P Global last month wrote it doesn’t believe the software vendor can repay the outstanding balance on its $133 million term loan obligation maturing in January 2025. As of 31 July 2024, the company had about $17 million cash on the balance sheet and about $32 million availability on its senior secured revolving credit facility.

It added the vendor needs an additional $120 million to cover cash outflow over the next six months and the upcoming loan in January.

In May, Mavenir announced it lined a $75 million investment from an existing investor.

The ratings agency attributed its underperformance to weakness in its key customer revenue and high R&D expenses in the open RAN business, which it expects will continue in the near term.

In addition to a cash crunch, Mavenir faces a soft overall RAN market and open RAN segment.

Dell’Oro predicted in October RAN revenue would trend downwards until 2029, with figures for 2024 suggesting a second consecutive year of steep decline.

In August it warned of stalling momentum in the open RAN market.

Early in the year, Aramco Digital formed a partnership with Intel to establish the first open RAN development centre in Saudi Arabia.

The investments are part the digital unit’s early moves to support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a government programme with the goal of increasing economic and cultural diversification.

The post Aramco Digital mulls $1B investment in Mavenir appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The advent of 5G marks a significant leap forward in telecommunication capabilities, delivering enhanced throughput, increased capacity, and improved latency. However, the potential of this fifth-generation wireless technology extends far beyond terrestrial confines, expanding into the realm of satellite-based Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN). NTN open-up new applications and services by providing robust connectivity in remote and underserved areas and are the key to bridging the digital divide and ensuring comprehensive global connectivity.

With the introduction of 3GPP Rel-17, NTN capabilities have been significantly bolstered, enabling the seamless delivery of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G New Radio (NR) applications.

Discover how NTN are revolutionizing connectivity, empowering communities with tailored solutions serving diverse needs – from agriculture to public safety – and successfully bridging the digital divide worldwide.

Get ready for the launch of 5G NTN.

Please click here to view the whitepaper.

The post MWL UNWRAPPED HOSTED WHITEPAPER: 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks: Get Ready for Launch appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The market for satellite-based 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) is growing rapidly, with recent research from the GSA reporting that 50 mobile operators in 37 countries and territories already have plans for services. The industry is coming to the realisation that satellite-based Direct to Device (D2D) 5G is not purely a vertical play for markets such as aviation or shipping but has a critical role to play in augmenting global coverage as part of the comprehensive mix of wireless networks. However, for many mobile operators there remain questions about the underlying technology as well as the business case.

This webinar will:

• Provide an overview of the current state of 5G NTN technologies, architectural approaches (regenerative and transparent), standards and launches
• Offer a detailed case study from Canadian mobile satellite operator Terrestar Solutions based on its experience of launching and delivering NTN services
• Explain the role that satellite has to play as part of the global connectivity offering for mobile operators

The post MWL UNWRAPPED WEBINAR: Get Ready for Launch – How Satellite can Solve the Economics of 5G appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Mavenir stated the slice ice will provide to the Norwegian Armed Forces will meet exacting service level requirements, with secure end-to-end communications a primary goal.

The vendor stated ice had recently-deployed a standalone 5G network using its cloud-native core, which is “fully containerised, runs on any cloud” and is “designed with a microservices approach”.

Tore Kristoffersen VP service delivery platforms for ice, said the operator now has “myriad possible new business cases” for enterprise customers.

As is common on 5G network slicing, guaranteed service level agreements are a key element for ice.

Kristoffersen added it was also eyeing opportunities for public safety services.

Ashok Khuntia, president of core networks with Mavenir, branded network slicing a “game changer” for operators and said the company is delivering the revenue ability needed to recoup investments in 5G.

Mavenir explained ice opted for its converged packet core for its 4G and 5G network in early 2023, later adding a cloud-based IMS, and messaging and value-added services package.

The post Mavenir 5G core powers ice slice appeared first on Mobile World Live.

At MWC Barcelona 2024 Pardeep Kohli, CEO, outlines the company’s vision of being a cloud-native, AI-enabled and green by design vendor.

The post Partner Interview: Mavenir appeared first on Mobile World Live.

During our Unwrapped Digital Event week, Justin Springham interviewed Sam Tabbara, CEO, Paradise Mobile and Antonio Correa, Senior RVP Southern Europe, Caribbean & Latin America, Mavenir on How open can 5G go?

The post Open 5G: Interview with Sam Tabbara, Paradise Mobile and Antonio Correa, Mavenir appeared first on Mobile World Live.

A new report by Dell’Oro Group stated the top-five mobile core vendors in Q2 2023 were Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Cisco, with the latter replacing Mavenir in the fifth spot.

The report led Light Reading to state Mavenir’s mobile core business had hit “the skids” in a headline.

Kohli noted Mavenir’s omission from Dell’Oro Group’s top-five was due to the research company’s decision to combine the wireless and wireline core sub-markets, but Mavenir doesn’t compete in the pure wireline sector.

According to Mavenir’s boss, research director for Dell’Oro Group and author of the report Dave Bolan told him it stopped reporting the split between wireline and wireless last year. But “if we did break out the data for the wireless market, Mavenir would be in the top-five vendor rankings,” Kohli quoted Bolan stating in a blog.

“Even without the report, I believe everyone in the industry knows that there are only five vendors [Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia and Mavenir] who can provide all wireless core network (Packet core + IMS) components at scale,” Kohli noted.

He stated the company has never built or sold proprietary hardware for mobile core, but in the past it has sold off-the shelf hardware, OpenStack, and its software as a system.

“Over the last three years, we have encouraged our customers to buy infrastructure (hardware plus CaaS) on private cloud or public cloud directly and we only provide software,” he wrote. “With this approach, our revenue number is pure software/services revenue with minimal third-party components.”

Kohli further stated the open RAN vendor has added more than 50 new customers over the past three years, which he said was only possible because of its move to a disaggregated model.

He noted the company’s software-only revenue increased in 2023 when compared to 2020 but didn’t provide data.

“I encourage all the analysts and journalists to change and think what the future of the telecom is going to be and not what it is today,” he wrote.

In a separate recent report, Dell’Oro Group stated open RAN and virtualised RAN revenue declined in Q2 2023, which marked the first quarter of year-over-year contractions since it started tracking them in 2019.

The post Mavenir CEO defends mobile core business appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The funding round was anchored by private equity company Siris Capital.

Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli (pictured) told Mobile World Live (MWL) the new investors “have a vested interest in the success of open RAN and they’ve invested in the company to grow together with us”.

In 2022 the company raised a total of $250 million across two funding rounds, taking on public debt for the first time in the second.

Omdia analyst James Crawshaw told MWL the latest round sends a message Mavenir is still in the market for the long term even if the promise of open RAN is taking longer to materialise than hoped.

Kohli said the latest funding will be used to expand into new markets.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done in the open RAN, so this is more on getting our products ready.”

Kohli explained a recently-axed US marketing team was less necessary than teams overseas where the company is less well-known and “the languages and the local events are different”.

Mavenir made cuts to its broader marketing department in 2022. Kohli said he expects staff numbers to remain at around 5,000, having previously predicted a rebound.

The executive also downgraded his 2023 revenue forecast from more than $1 billion to around $600 million.

“We expect open RAN adoption to go faster this year”, he said, citing wins with Deutsche Telekom, Virgin Media O2 and “more brownfield operators”.

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Light Reading reported the vendor was shifting its marketing efforts from a centralised model at the company’s headquarters to a regional approach as part of an effort to focus on “large RAN and packet core deals,” according to John Baker, SVP of business development at Mavenir.

Silverlinings reported in March 2023 that Mavenir’s North American marketing team would be laid off by the end of the month as part of a plan to move marketing to India.

Mobile World Live (MWL) reported in August 2022 the vendor had made significant cuts to its marketing team. At the time, Tubb stated to MWL the company grew from 3,200 employees three years ago to 6,000 in May 2022.

Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli told MWL in October 2022 he expected the company’s headcount to return to 6,000. He previously stated the company was looking to generate revenue of more than $1 billion in 2023: in 2021, the sum was $636 million.

Mavenir closed a $155 million funding round in October as part of  a strategy to focus on providing systems integration services to operators for brownfield open RAN deployments.

The company closed a $95 million funding round in August 2022, which marked the first time it took on public debt.

Kohli, Baker and Tubb didn’t respond to questions from MWL about layoffs in the marketing department.

The post Mavenir retools marketing department, Tubb to depart appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Cohere Technologies CMO and SVP of business development Ronny Haraldsvik told Mobile World Live (MWL) the plan is to collaborate and integrate into Mavenir’s open RAN product line.

Ray Dolan, Cohere Technologies CEO, stated the company would combine its universal spectrum multiplier (USM) with Mavenir’s 4G and 5G products, and work on using Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) for 6G.

Haraldsvik told MWL OTFS could be used to create a “multi-G” product capable of processing related multiplexing on 4G and 5G, along with waveforms likely to pave the way to 6G.

Roy Chua, founder and principal analyst at research outfit AvidThink, told MWL Mavenir boosts the number of channels available to Cohere Technologies, particularly among operators already working on open RAN tests or deployments.

He added the benefit for Mavenir lies in demonstrating the interoperability of its RICs “with third-party xApps”.

Chua noted the collaboration involves “a known xApp that already has strong associations” with companies including VMware and Juniper Networks.

The open RAN market likely offers Cohere Technologies an easier path to market, as deals with established vendors including Ericsson and Nokia could be challenging given they may not welcome software which extends the lifespan of legacy equipment, potentially weakening demand for new products.

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Mavenir claimed its O-RIC product surpasses the capabilities of self-organising networks (SON) with two control loops covering non-real-time and near real-time.

RICs are designed to control base stations from a variety of open RAN vendors, providing features including power management. In addition to open RAN, they could eventually replace SONs in traditional architectures.

Mavenir stated O-RIC “enables the creation of differentiated services through open APIs” to create “intelligent, closed-loop end-to-end network tuning to optimise network performance, increase cost efficiency and maximise the user experience”.

Omdia analyst James Crawshaw told Mobile World Live “it is still early days” for Mavenir, which he believes could become a strong contender in the RIC market

“The press release says they are currently in deployment which makes it sound to me like these are ongoing trials,” he stated. “Hopefully these turn into real revenue in the near future.”

Other RIC vendors including Nokia, Juniper Networks and VMware are also developing non- and near-real-time applications.

The post Mavenir RIC rolls into competitive arena appeared first on Mobile World Live.

In a statement, Mavenir explained Paradise Mobile is constructing its network from scratch, employing the US vendor’s radios, core, BSS, IMS and voice products, among others.

Paradise Mobile plans to launch commercial services later this year, stating it will address “some of the biggest service challenges” in the area by “enabling a multitude of new products and services”.

CEO and co-founder Sam Tabbara told Mobile World Live Paradise Mobile will use spectrum in the 700MHz, 1700MHz and 3500MHz bands.

It will compete against incumbents Digicel and One Communications.

Open RAN has struggled to gain large-scale adoption among operators beyond deployments by Dish Wireless and Rakuten Mobile.

In a LinkedIn post yesterday (6 February), Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli stated it added more than 30 new open RAN customers in 2022 and generated revenue of $100 million compared with $7 million in 2020.

The post Mavenir takes open RAN to Paradise appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Triangle Communications moved to replace Huawei equipment ahead of the FCC dispersing funds for its Reimbursement Programme.

Mavenir announced it provided a cloud-native, converged packet core, open RAN and compliant radio units.

Triangle Communications CEO Craig Gates stated it selected Mavenir for its systems integration capabilities and expertise, which he said enabled the operator to meet the forthcoming FCC requirements.

The FCC announced the programme in 2021, offering a pot totalling $1.9 billion to operators serving less than 10 million customers to cover the cost of replacing equipment from Huawei and ZTE.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel reportedly called for an additional $3.1 billion to be made available for the scheme in July as the regulator began to process the first compensation claims by operators.

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Triangle Communications ha iniciado la sustitución del equipamiento de Huawei sin esperar a que la FCC distribuya los fondos de su Programa de Reembolso.

Según la propia empresa, Mavenir ha proporcionado un núcleo de paquetes convergente nativo en la nube, red RAN abierta y equipos de radio compatibles.

Craig Gates, consejero delegado de Triangle Communications, explica que se han decantado por Mavenir a causa de las capacidades de integración de sistemas y a la experiencia del suministrador. Afirma que gracias a ello la operadora podrá cumplir las exigencias que la FCC impondrá en un futuro cercano.

La FCC anunció el programa en 2021 y prometió distribuir un total de 1.900 millones de dólares (más de 1.900 millones de euros) para cubrir el coste de la sustitución del equipamiento de Huawei y ZTE en manos de operadoras que cuenten con menos de 10 millones de clientes.

Se cree que Jessica Rosenworcel, presidenta de la FCC, solicitó en julio 3.100 millones de dólares (unos 3.150 millones de euros) adicionales para el programa, en cuanto el organismo regulador empezó a gestionar las primeras peticiones de compensación por parte de las operadoras.

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En la primera edición del certamen virtual Unwrapped de Mobile World Live, Kohli ha señalado que los proveedores de RAN abierta han tardado en ganar terreno en un mercado en el que los modelos de negocio ya están establecidos desde hace tiempo.

El directivo ha explicado que a Mavenir le ha llevado unos siete años llegar a donde está hoy, pero que las redes del futuro, dentro de muy poco, utilizarán tan solo “pilas de software y desagregadas”.

Kohli ha destacado que la financiación es otro de los retos clave para las operadoras de RAN abierta y ha señalado que la ambición de Mavenir de establecerse como integrador de sistemas conlleva unos requisitos de capital distintos, sobre todo porque se está involucrando cada vez más en hardware.

Ha explicado que Mavenir desarrolla por sí misma una parte del hardware a fin de sortear los problemas causados en la cadena de aprovisionamiento por un panorama geopolítico cambiante, dado que muchas de las firmas que fabrican el equipamiento tienen su sede en China.

La empresa ha dedicado tres años a crear un “equipo capaz de diseñar y construir radios”.

Kohli afirma que “en ese sentido, esto ha sido una barrera”, y añade que si un número mayor de empresas produjera elementos clave de hardware “habríamos podido abrirnos paso mucho antes en el mercado”.

El directivo también se ha referido a la escasez de personal cualificado en todo el mundo y ha expresado sus opiniones sobre el enfoque que deben adoptar las firmas de infraestructuras y las operadoras de redes para incrementar su porción en los ingresos generados por el creciente tráfico de datos.

Haga clic aquí para verlo.

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During Mobile World Live’s inaugural Unwrapped event, Kohli noted it had taken time for open RAN vendors to begin to gain traction in a market with long-established business models.

He explained it took Mavenir around seven years to get to where it is today, but added future networks were now on the brink of fully employing “software and disaggregated stacks”.

Kohli highlighted funding as another key challenge for any open RAN player, noting Mavenir’s ambition to establish itself as a systems integrator brought a different set of capital requirements, particularly as it finds itself increasingly involved in the hardware sector.

He explained Mavenir is developing some hardware itself to get round supply-chain issues caused by a changing geopolitical landscape, given many of the companies which actually make the equipment are based in China.

The company has spent three years setting up a “team which can design and build radios”.

“In that sense that has been a barrier”, Kohli said, explaining if more companies were producing key hardware elements “we would have been able to address the market much faster.

Kohli also discussed a global skills shortage, and offered his views on the approach infrastructure companies and network operators should take to up their slice of the revenue generated by growing data traffic.

Click here to view.

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Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli (pictured) told Mobile World Live the latest round was covered by an existing investor upping their stake.

The move follows a $95 million funding round in August, which was the first time Mavenir took on public debt.

As a systems integrator for brownfield open RAN, Mavenir plans to offer operators’ turnkey set-ups combining its own software and hardware with other vendors products, including Fujitsu and NEC for radios, and Dell and HP hardware.

Mavenir began selling licences to its software before developing hardware including radios a few years ago.

Kohli explained its operator proposition is “still based on an open RAN, and we can mix and match all of that stuff, but it doesn’t look like they’re buying from five different vendors because we put it all together”.

He stated there’s an opportunity for Mavenir because operators are focused on running their networks rather than building a brownfield environment based on open RAN.

Kohli argued Mavenir’s advantage over rival systems integrators is they cannot cover all the necessary requirements “because it’s not their products” and they have not integrated interfaces with other vendors like his company has.

The funding is timely as Mavenir looks to generate revenue of more than $1 billion in 2023: in 2021, the sum was $636 million.

“If I need to deploy more of these systems and I need to be the system integrator, then I need those supply chains sorted out now because if we don’t start now then it won’t happen next year,” he noted. “We need to get ready now if we’re going to cross $1 billion.”

Opportunity
Dish Network named Mavenir one of its first 5G vendors in 2020, but Kohli stated it was able to act as its own systems integrator during the construction of the company’s greenfield network.

While the goal of open RAN includes using software, cloud and open interfaces to allow mobile operators to select network components, uptake for greenfield deployments has been slow to date.

Moving to brownfield gives open RAN vendors a much larger playing field.

AvidThink founder and principal Roy Chua told MWL open RAN in brownfield macro deployments is a challenge, but “an important pillar going forward for success”.

Kohli told MWL the latest funding round also reflected the need to gear up supply chains and inventory requirements for deployments in 2023.

“If you look at Nokia, and Ericsson, they have $4 billion or $5 billion of inventory to meet all their supply chain requirements.”

“As we grow, our working capital needs grow, but we will also have bigger contracts to support it.”

Kohli predicted Mavenir’s staff would ultimately return to around 6,000, after layoffs in August.

“We may add another 400 or 500 people next year,” he stated, noting Mavenir will also require additional subcontractors for the brownfield deployments.

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Moody’s Investors Service noted Mavenir opted to take on public debt in its latest funding move, which broke with its previous strategy.

In a note on 16 August, Moody’s explained Mavenir had previously relied solely on private equity and other strategic investors for funding, “back-stopping all negative cash flow with equity”.

Moody’s highlighted the latest funding move was a “significant break” for Mavenir, prompted by a need to prepare for “anticipated cash burn” associated with R&D costs, “higher working capital needs and a softer top-line growth forecast”.

Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli told Mobile World Live (MWL) the company concluded in July that “raising money through debt was better” than “selling equity, as the valuation of almost all tech companies is down”.

“Raising money through equity would have been more dilutive,” he stated adding. “We are well funded now and will continue to grow as planned.”

Staffing
Kohli noted news of staff lay-offs was an example of Mavenir optimising its workforce “like all other companies do” and it would have made the same move “even if we were not raising money”.

Moody’s noted Mavenir generated revenue of around $632 million in the year to end-April, but is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy requiring substantial R&D spending which is “producing very low profitability”.

Mavenir is majority owned and controlled by private equity company Siris Capital and raised $500 million in 2021 through the sale of a minority equity stake to Koch Strategic Platforms.

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La operadora es la división de Telefónica que presta servicios en Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, México, Uruguay, Venezuela y América Central.

El acuerdo está en la línea de anteriores despliegues de la misma tecnología por O2 Telefónica en Alemania y Virgin Mobile O2 en el Reino Unido. Virgin Mobile O2 es una empresa conjunta de Telefónica y Liberty Global.

La solución IMS Core se desplegará sobre la TCloud, la infraestructura de nube privada de Telefónica.

Mavenir explica que su suite IMS Core nativa en la nube utiliza la tecnología ZTNA (siglas inglesas de automatización de la red sin intervenciones) y que se creó específicamente para entornos de nube plenamente automatizados.

Además, proporciona un entorno totalmente contenedorizado que permite mejorar la agilidad y el escalado en un contexto en el que las operadoras móviles migran de 4G a 5G mediante una arquitectura basada en microservicios.

Alejandro Ghianni, director de planificación e ingeniería de Telefónica Hispam, ha declarado que las funciones de su red troncal habían de renovarse para hacerlas compatibles con la evolución de la red, y que las arquitecturas virtualizadas necesitan un software que sea compatible con los servicios de voz VoLTE y con la 5G.

No se ha revelado el importe económico de la operación.

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Telefonica Hispanoamerica (Hispam) is a Telefonica division that offers services across Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Central America.

The deal built upon previous deployments of the same technology at O2 Telefonica in Germany and Virgin Mobile O2 in the UK. Virgin Mobile O2 is a joint venture between Telefonica and Liberty Global.

The IMS Core solution will be deployed on TCloud which is Telefonica’s private telco cloud infrastructure.

Mavenir said its cloud-native IMS core suite uses zero-touch network automation (ZTNA) and that it was purpose-built for fully automated cloud environments.

It also provides a fully containerised environment to enable improved agility and scaling as mobile operators migrate from 4G to 5G by using a microservice-based architecture.

Alejandro Ghianni, Planification and Engineering Director at Telefónica Hispam, stated core network functions needed to be modernised to support network evolution, and virtualised architectures need software that supports both VoLTE and 5G voice services.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

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