Mavenir’s voice, text and multimedia services ‘built for a fully automated cloud environment’
Mavenir Telefónica Hispam (Hispanoamérica) announced on Thursday that it has selected the company to provide IP Multimedia System (IMS) core services for stationary and mobile networks in Mexico, Colombia and Chile. The IMS Core solution will be deployed in Ticloud, the companies said. TCloud is Telefonica’s own telco cloud infrastructure, providing cloud-native core voice, messaging and multimedia functions in Telefonica’s Latin America deployment.
Mavenir says its cloud-native IMS is “purpose-built for a fully automated cloud environment.” According to the company, Cloud-Native Suite provides a completely containerized app environment for Zero-Touch Network Automation (ZTNA) and more efficient scaling and agility as Communication Service Providers (CSPs) move to 5G services.
Javier Gavilan, CTO CALA Region of Mavenir, said that Mavenir’s IMS Core solution is already using O2 Telefónica in Germany and Virgin Mobile O2 in the UK.
“Mavenir’s Cloud-Native IMS Core can be deployed on any Cloud Eliminating Legacy hardware platform,” he explained.
For Telefonica, the transfer to IMS Core will help accelerate its network modernization efforts. Alejandro Ghiani, director of planning and engineering at Telefonica Hispam, explains that the virtualized software architecture requires scalable core services for both Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over 5G (Vo5G) – which provides Mavenir’s IMS core.
Telefónica’s Latin America infrastructure construction took an interesting turn in June with the news that subsidiary Movistar was considering launching 5G in the country through a network sharing agreement with Mexico AT&T.
The news comes just days after AT & T’s 5G launch in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterey. AT&T Mexico users will be able to access 5G via AT&T Ármalo, a personalized experience that allows users to create their own 5G plans. Additionally, businesses will be able to take advantage of 5G through AT&T business, the company said. The carrier initially launched 5G service in Mexico in December last year using spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band. AT & T’s 5G network was limited to the Cuauhtémoc and Napoles districts of Mexico City. AT&T says it expects the 5G infrastructure to reach 25 new cities by the end of 2022.
Mavenir’s recent core networking wins include Vodafone Portugal, which in April selected Mavenir’s 5G converted packet core for its upcoming 5G standalone (SA) network. Vodafone Portugal Network Director Paulino Correa says 5G SA has come up with new technology for CSP. He said Vodafone has been working on 5G SA in Portugal and Maveni Labs for over a year and is now ready to provide a “Cloud-Native Packet Core platform that will transform our network and make a difference in powerful applications and uses,” he said. 5G solutions are evolving, ”he said.
Maveni was among half a dozen Open RAN vendors who were recently selected to participate in a Federal 5G Challenge that supports the development and interoperability of the 5G Open RAN system. The challenge is being organized by the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIS ITS) of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in collaboration with the Department of Defense. CableLabs acts as the host lab for participants. Competitors were selected based on white paper submissions and now have to go through two stages of simulated integration and network integration test.