The collaboration is formed as part of the Evenstar program to help accelerate the commercial deployment of Open RAN (O-RAN) and bolster 5G readiness for global operators. The Evenstar program is a project between Facebook Connectivity and global industry partners to accelerate the adoption of Open RAN technology.
“The Evenstar program is a part of our efforts to accelerate the availability and commercial readiness of Open RAN solutions, and we are excited to have STL on board," said Jaydeep Ranade, director of wireless engineering for Facebook Connectivity.
"We look forward to working with STL to continue shifting the industry towards open, disaggregated and more vendor-agnostic 5G networks.”
Through this collaboration, STL will build two advanced, high-power macro radio products. The first one is an O-RAN compliant radio, which will provide higher capacity for dense deployments. The second is an O-RAN compliant 4G+5G Dual Technology Radio that supports both the technologies individually and concurrently.
These 3GPP and O-RAN compliant radio products will be developed over the next year and once complete will enable global telecom operators to scale up commercial deployments of open networking infrastructure and ready their networks for Open RAN 5G.
“We are delighted to support and contribute to the Evenstar program to develop 3GPP and O-RAN compliant radio products. Through this collaboration, STL extends its existing commitment towards creating a robust, open and disaggregated access network ecosystem," said Chris Rice, CEO of access solutions business, STL.
"By building an open networking infrastructure through efforts like this one, we are enabling global telecom service providers to take the power of 5G technology to billions of people worldwide at lower cost points.”
The news comes as over the last few years, STL has been developing open, disaggregated, virtualised and programmable solutions for the access side of the network.
