OpenRAN allows operators to mix and match suppliers in their radio networks, posing a challenge to the likes of the ones that dominate the global telecoms equipment market with their proprietary technologies.

Moreover, Vodafone’s initiative will contribute to the European Union’s efforts to bolster its chip industry and double its share of global production to 20% after it lost ground to Asian and U.S. suppliers.

Santiago Tenorio, Vodafone’s director of network architecture, commented in an interview with Reuters that OpenRAN would enable the mobile operator to quickly add new digital services and to optimize networks using artificial intelligence (AI).

What OpenRAN do is to create interoperability between both software and hardware components of the radio access network.

The R&D centre is the first dedicated to advancing OpenRAN chip architecture. It will bring 50 people dedicated to OpenRAN together with 650 software engineers, architects and technicians in Malaga. Tenorio also noted that Vodafone would design silicon for ARM and RISC-V instruction sets as well as Intel x86. He added that Intel was up to three years ahead of rivals and had already played a key role in OpenRAN’s development.

As cellular networks move from 3G and 4G to the faster 5G networks, it is crucial for them to launch their services as soon as possible in order to justify the billions of dollars of investments they have made in buying the 5G spectrums, infrastructure and equipment, said Ofir Zemer, the CEO of the 8-year-old company.

“5G is a big issue in mobile networks. Everyone wants to accelerate their 5G deployment because mobile carriers believe that 5G will have a great impact on their consumers and enterprise customers, and will allow them to generate new revenue streams.”

Cellwize software allows mobile operators to automatically launch the 5G networks with very little manual intervention.

“Deploying a mobile network is a very complex process, predominantly manual process, where someone needs to configure the network elements in a way that the network will now work. We are equipment agnostic. That is the beauty.”

The company initially provided software to deploy previous-generation networks. It has now transitioned its technology to cater for 5G networks. Competitors who have developed similar software to help deploy 5G networks include Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei, he said. But their software works only with their own 5G infrastructure equipment, and most carriers generally use equipment from a variety of vendors, Zemer said.

5G networks are very complex networks to operate – with tens of thousands of towers that need to be deployed to provide stable communications coverage. Intel is a very large provider of chipsets for mobile networks, said Zemer.

“With Cellwize’s platform, which contains AI capabilities, on top of Intel’s chipsets, the mobile operator can deploy and manage their 5G faster and better.”

A chipset is a set of electronic components in an integrated circuit. The accord will enable Intel’s chipsets to be “powered by Cellwize,” he added. The contract with Intel is for “potentially millions of dollars,” he said. There is no exclusivity, and Cellwize is also selling its software to 30 companies including Dell, Verizon, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Israel’s Partner Communications, he added.

The collaboration with Intel will allow operators to deploy their 5G networks “more quickly, with a fully automated process, up to 90% reduction in associated costs, improved quality of services through automation, reduced operating expenses to configure and activate cell sites, and overall enhanced customer satisfaction through AI-driven and predictive decision making,” Cellwize said in a statement.