Mavenir Ups Open RAN RRU (Remote Radio Unit) Ecosystem Game

December 28, 2020

Mavenir expanded its Radio organization as its industry leadership and progress continues in OpenRAN. Mavenir has been an early advocate for OpenRAN to drive openness, innovation, and security in 5G and this expansion will energize the Remote Radio Unit ecosystem.

The OpenRAN industry depends on availability of carrier-grade, ORAN-compliant radios that can meet the evolving needs and requirements of Public and Private Mobile networks. To this end, Mavenir is announcing a new business unit to develop hardware and software production quality designs for OpenRAN radios, that will enable vendors/partners to build radios for specific markets. Mikael Rylander will lead this Business Group as SVP and GM, Radio Business Unit, to focus on RRUs and RRU ecosystem.

“Our OpenRAN deployments and trials are gaining momentum globally. To further strengthen our roadmap and ongoing Radio Access strategic initiatives, I am pleased to announce the formation of an RRU Business Unit,” said Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO of Mavenir. “With our leadership in OpenRAN, we want to enable best-in-class partner ecosystem that can together deliver a portfolio of compelling OpenRAN radios. We will support this ecosystem with RRU software, expertise, facilitation of appropriate production sites and RRU validation with our vRAN products. These radios will be available for use by any Open RAN vendor and are not exclusive to Mavenir.”

In addition, Puneet Sethi will be joining Mavenir as SVP/GM, to lead the RAN Business Unit and focus on creating and delivering market leading CU and DU Software solutions. Mavenir’s CU and DU solutions are designed based on OpenRAN principles and are already deployed with multiple OpenRAN compliant 3rd party radios. Remaining committed to those OpenRAN principles, Mavenir’s CU and DU software solutions will work with both Mavenir radio unit products and 3rd party radio units, thereby offering customers the widest choice in the industry.

Puneet joins Mavenir most recently from Qualcomm where he helped establish Small Cells and RAN Infra Business ground up to its existing industry leading position in 5G. He had the overall responsibility of the business unit P&L, execution, product roadmap and business development. While delivering significant business growth, he successfully evolved FSM RAN products including baseband SoC, SW and RF through 3G/4G/5G industry transitions to meet the needs of Qualcomm’s global customer base. Prior to his current role, he held other roles at Qualcomm including UWB business development and leading PHY software team responsible for Qualcomm’s first LTE UE modem launch. He also brings diverse set of telecom experiences from his prior roles at Radioframe Networks, Comneon and Ubinetics.