Rakuten Mobile has opened a Rakuten Open RAN Customer Experience Center in the UK.

The new center establishes a collaboration agreement between Japan and the UK to work to advance Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN) in Europe.

The center opened on March 28 and is the result of a joint commitment by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the UK’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to increase the diversity of telecommunications suppliers.

According to Rakuten, The center will serve as a European center for interoperability testing of the feasibility of Open RAN in new and existing networks.

The center will host workshops and events showcasing the latest Open RAN hardware and software, and will also be open to telecommunications companies and industrial suppliers in Europe and the Middle East to conduct testing.

Rakuten’s role in pushing for UK Open RAN comes just a month after it was announced The UK government selects Rakuten and Japanese operator NTT Docomo to work with local companies to advance the development of Open RAN technology in the country. Japan has similar partnerships with other countries, including the United States, Australia, India and Singapore.

“As Japan and the UK strengthen their technology collaboration, MIC Japan believes that the opening of Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN Customer Experience Center is truly significant for the evolution of secure and intelligent 5G in the UK and Europe,” he said. Yuki Naruse, Director of International Policy Coordination, International Economic Affairs Division, Office of Global Strategy, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.

“MIC intends for the center to contribute [la] diversify the telecommunications supply chain and will increase interoperability between Japanese and international suppliers by increasing awareness of Open RAN in Europe and around the world.”

In August last year, Rakuten launched its own Rakuten Mobile Open Innovation Lab in Tokyoto encourage the progress of Open RAN, especially around Virtualized Open RAN (vRAN).

Meanwhile in the UK, the country has made no secret of its desire to push Open RAN technology, aiming to promote a new generation of telecommunications equipment that allows vendors to ‘mix and match’ solutions from multiple vendors, which is currently impossible. .