Rakuten Symphony wins METI grant for Kyivstar Open RAN field tests

Rakuten Symphony said on Monday that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) awarded it a grant to partly subsidise a project with Ukrainian operator Kyivstar to expand Open RAN tests from the lab to the field.

TL;DR

• Rakuten Symphony received a METI grant in Japan.
• The grant will partly subsidise an Open RAN project with Kyivstar in Ukraine.
• The project will expand testing from laboratory work to field trials.

Rakuten Symphony and Kyivstar are using the grant to support Open RAN testing in Ukraine. Open RAN is a mobile network architecture that uses open interfaces between radio access network components so operators can mix equipment from different suppliers.

The announcement states that the METI funding will partly subsidise the project rather than fully fund it. The stated purpose is to move the Open RAN work beyond lab testing and into field testing with Kyivstar.

Kyivstar is a Ukrainian telecom operator. METI is Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the government body named by Rakuten Symphony as the source of the grant.

Related questions

• What is Open RAN and how does it differ from traditional RAN deployments?
• What role does METI play in funding telecom technology projects in Japan?
• Why are Rakuten Symphony and Kyivstar moving Open RAN tests from the lab to the field?