NEC established its European 5G Centre of Excellence (CoE) and test lab in Ruislip, just outside of West London in 2020. The lab has a clear focus on Open RAN integration and end-to-end solution development and validation and has been supporting Open RAN trials and integration testing engagements with major European telco groups, like Telefonica, DT and Vodafone.

In 2021, the Government of Japan funded the expansion of NEC’s London 5G lab capability and capacity to develop and test technologies, platforms, testbeds and automation systems with the objective to significantly improve and streamline interoperability verification and conformance testing, including under conditions close to commercial environments between network elements conformant to O-RAN specifications from different vendors and to accelerate the commercial market readiness and growth of such solutions.

The project is part of the “Research and Development Project of the Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems,” commissioned by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO); it has a particular focus on collaboration between the R&D ecosystems of the USA, the UK and Japan.  You can read more about our NEC is contributing to the stimulation and growth of the open 5G market thrugh NEDO here.