Kazuhiko Harasaki, Tokyo-based deputy general manager of NEC’s global business unit, has told Capacity that the new unit, based in west London, will be “not only UK or European, but for other regions too”.
The centre of excellence will also address the North American market, confirmed Yogarajah Gopikrishna, general manager of carrier solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at NEC.
“We are looking at taking a large part of the 5G market,” he said. “Once the ecosystem is state-of-the-art” the project will also help to establish NEC’s position in 6G, the next generation of mobile. At the moment the industry is in the early stages of defining the requirements of 6G, before starting on R&D and standards towards the middle of the decade.
NEC said in November that the unit — which will be alongside the company’s UK headquarters in South Ruislip, a western suburb of London — will be responsible for business and solution development, product development support, project execution and technical support for its global open RAN (open RAN or O RAN) activities.
Two weeks later the UK government put its weight behind open RANs, a move designed to end the mobile industry’s dependence on three key suppliers, Ericsson, Nokia and particularly Huawei. The UK said it will spend £250 million to help open up the mobile telecoms supply chain.
In last week’s exclusive interview with Capacity, Gopikrishna said that the introduction of 5G is a “technological discontinuity” in mobile telecoms that will see major changes in the way things are done. In particular “the RAN should be seamless with the IT”, he said. “There will be an IT-oriented architecture, which needs an open architecture, not locked into one vendor. The walls need to come down.”
One of the key gains is that the move will see an increase in the number of suppliers to the market, “to make sure there is sufficient competition”. There won’t just be NEC — though “we are RAN manufacturers ourselves, we understand” — but “new partner companies” will join the ecosystem, said Gopikrishna.
“We need to make sure they have the muscle in R&D.,” he added. “That’s why NEC has invested in the centre of excellence.”
The South Ruislip centre will also be a focus for NEC’s work on 6G, confirmed Gopikrishna. “We are active in [developing] the standards for 6G. The ecosystem is vibrant.”
He welcomed the support by the UK government and said he hoped that “is a blueprint for other countries to follow”.
