(Picture: Qualcomm)

O-RAN compliant, virtualised and cloud-native: Qualcomm Technologies and NEC have entered into a strategic partnership to jointly develop an open and virtualised 5G distributed unit (DU).

The collaboration is part of the 5G Open RAN Ecosystem (OREC) initiative, led by NTT DOCOMO with the goal of accelerating open RAN worldwide. “We are excited about Qualcomm Technologies and NEC Corporation partnering […],” said Sadayuki Abeta, General Manager, Radio Access Network Development Department, NTT DOCOMO. “The development of 5G open and virtualized DU solutions will help drive our OREC activities to make 5G RAN deployment more open and flexible with industry leaders.”