Kit vendor Alcatel-Lucent and Spanish operator Telefónica have signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that signifies their commitment to extend their collaboration over NFV testing.

Telefónica has already tested A-Lu’s Virtualized Service Router using the OpenMANO NFV orchestration stack, claiming the tests to be an unqualified success. The aim, from Telefónica’s point of view, is to further explore the network performance and efficiency benefits of NFV.

“We are pleased to continue our work with Alcatel-Lucent on the use of NFV technologies to transform future networks,” said Enrique Blanco, Global CTO at Telefónica. “We have already seen an outstanding performance in the testing of Alcatel-Lucent’s VSR, showing that it delivers comparable performance to hardware-based routers. Use of these technologies will open up new opportunities as we continue innovating to exceed our customer’s expectations.”

“As innovation leaders, Alcatel-Lucent and Telefónica are aligned on our goal to transform the future of mobile networks,” Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. “We have a comprehensive portfolio of NFV technologies that can be used to optimize networks and meet the ever-growing connectivity demands of the future.”

It’s reasonable to question why companies bother to publicise things like this. In this case A-Lu is, of course, in the process of being acquired by Nokia, so maybe Telefónica is keen to cement its R&D partnership in advance of that. Additionally both companies will be keen to demonstrate to their customers and the market in general that they’re on the case, regarding things like NFV.