- German NatCo adopts Mavenir‑supplied converged packet core.
- Engagement adds momentum to 5G SA plans.
- Mavenir further deepens Group bonds.
US software‑based networking player Mavenir announced that Telekom Deutschland (TDE) had chosen to implement converged packet core technology within its 5G standalone (SA) network.
Specifically, Mavenir is supplying software applications to run on the German NatCo’s defined hardware and existing Kubernetes‑based platform as part of an open network and multi‑vendor approach. The converged packet core is said to support data, messaging, and voice services, as well as networking slicing.
Abdurazak Mudesir, Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Deutsche Telekom (DT), highlighted the deployment of a cloud‑native SA core as a “key milestone in the evolution of our 5G architecture”, although without indicating when TDE will launch its 5G SA network in Germany.
TDE CTO Walter Goldenits has previously said the German NatCo was on course to launch the technology on a commercial basis in 2022 (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #113).
DT has a longstanding relationship with Mavenir, which has largely focused on the implementation of network core apparently capable of migrating to cloud‑native virtualisation. In late‑2021, it linked up with Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC) on the implementation of its cloud‑native virtualised IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) within TRMC’s network (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #107).
In early‑2020, twin NatCos Slovak Telekom and T‑Mobile Czech Republic announced the completion of what they called a “harmonised” core network, which used a Mavenir IMS product (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #97).
Mavenir also has past links with Hrvatski Telekom, Magenta Telekom, and T‑Mobile US on next‑generation voice and data infrastructure (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #38, #41, #49, #51, and #65–#66).
More recently, the vendor has been participating in the Group’s O‑RAN Town deployment in Neubrandenburg, Germany to trial open radio access network (RAN) technology (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #108). Mavenir supplied cloud‑native baseband software for 4G and 5G distributed units and central units, including multiple input, multiple output (mMIMO) radio units, while Fujitsu and NEC provided remote radio units for the project.
