Kyivstar and Rakuten prep for Open RAN testingKyivstar and Rakuten prep for Open RAN testing

Rakuten Symphony – Kyivstar's principle supplier and hand-holder through all this – has revealed that they are ready to begin the in-country lab-testing phase of their project, which ultimately aims to rebuild and modernise the operator's infrastructure, with open, cloud-based networking playing a starring role.

More specifically, they will test Rakuten Symphony's RAN software along with its Cloud-Native Platform. As well as helping them progress towards actual deployment, Rakuten and Kyivstar said the tests will also inform Ukraine's long-term strategy for the deployment of critical digital infrastructure.

"We believe in the potential of Open RAN to rebuild Ukraine's digital infrastructure for the future. We are delighted to partner with Rakuten Group, bringing in their cutting-edge technological expertise to Ukraine's digital connectivity landscape," said Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of Kyivstar parent Veon. "The start of in-country testing is a critical milestone, and we hope to accelerate our collaboration further upon its successful completion."

Acceleration is the order of the day, given how long this seems to be taking.

Veon is in the midst of a $600 million spending spree on Kyivstar's infrastructure. Announced in the summer of 2023, the bulk of the funds are being funnelled towards 4G network expansion and fibre, but some of that money is funding Kyivstar's 5G and Open RAN efforts.

Kyivstar and Rakuten originally signed their Open RAN MoU back when that spending plan was first unveiled, but the two didn't sign a letter of intent to roll out the technology until last February.

These things take time, especially when there's a war on, and Veon has also had to contend with having its corporate rights in Kyivstar temporarily frozen while the Ukrainian government examined potential links to sanctioned Russian businessmen.

These excuses are perfectly valid, and the glacial progress is very much in keeping with the general theme of Open RAN these days.

Indeed, research firm Dell'Oro this week revised down its forecast for Open RAN uptake due to a lower starting point and ongoing uncertainty surrounding the transition from 'O-RAN ready' to Open RAN.

"The transition to Open RAN is a gradual process and the benefits and challenges of Open RAN vary across the RAN, influencing the adoption pace of O-RAN radios and vRAN baseband," says Dell'Oro.

By 2029, it expects Open RAN to comprise more than 25% of the global RAN market, but multi-vendor Open RAN to account for less than 10%. The last time Dell'Oro updated its forecast, it expected Open RAN to reach these milestones by 2028.

"Our long-term position remains mostly unchanged," said Stefan Pongratz, vice president of RAN market research at Dell'Oro. "Even with ongoing challenges and delays, we still anticipate that most operators will gradually incorporate more openness, virtualisation, intelligence, and automation into their RAN roadmaps."

"At the same time, the impact will be mixed," he said. "While O-RAN fronthaul interfaces are being adopted and Open RAN is accelerating the shift towards vRAN/Cloud RAN, this vision that Open RAN will catalyse multi-vendor RAN, bring down prices, and change the vendor dynamics is fading."

That's not great news for the likes of Rakuten Symphony, which originally positioned itself as the glue that would stitch together multi-vendor Open RAN networks. The last thing an embattled operator like Kyivstar needs is a white elephant.