Rakuten Symphony and Zain Kuwait have taken a significant step in the telecom industry by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pioneer the country’s first cloud-native Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) deployment. This collaboration aims to establish Kuwait’s first Open RAN deployment, utilizing Rakuten Symphony’s advanced O-RAN and cloud products for the development and installation of 5G Standalone (5G SA) sites.
The project is initially a pilot, setting the stage for a broader rollout of commercial O-RAN technology across Kuwait and the other countries where Zain Group operates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. With Rakuten Symphony’s virtualized distributed unit and centralized unit software, along with its cloud-native platform, the goal is to deliver enhanced flexibility, scalability, and operational efficiency to the network infrastructure.
Zain Kuwait will contribute physical network assets and the 5G SA core infrastructure for the project, while Rakuten Symphony will offer its software and integration expertise. The collaboration is expected to deliver improved network performance and greater flexibility, significantly reducing the time required to bring new services to market.
“Rakuten Symphony is pleased to support Zain Kuwait in delivering the country’s first O-RAN deployment, ushering in a new era of digital innovation and enhanced customer performance,” stated Sharad Sriwastawa, president of Rakuten Symphony. Daaij Al-Oud, Zain Kuwait’s CTO, echoed this sentiment, noting that the pilot represents a crucial step towards transforming the telecom infrastructure and aligns with Zain’s broader vision of regional digital leadership.
In addition to this partnership, Zain Kuwait completed a successful proof of concept test focused on Fixed Wireless Access technology earlier this year. The test, in collaboration with Parallel Wireless, achieved impressive performance metrics, including download speeds exceeding 1.3 Gbps. Significantly, the trial also demonstrated over 35% energy savings, supporting Zain Kuwait’s sustainability goals and highlighting the potential of general-purpose hardware in boosting energy efficiency.
