MWC Netherlands-based telecom operator Altice has announced that it will extend its partnership with Cisco, aiming to develop a comprehensive network function virtualization (NFV) platform over the long term.
The agreement, revealed at Mobile World Congress, also includes collaboration with Red Hat. Altice’s French subsidiary, SFR, already runs an NFV initiative co-engineered by Cisco and Red Hat, built on Red Hat’s OpenStack Platform.
SFR reports that around half of its mobile traffic is already handled by its virtualized platform, and the operator expects that share to grow to 80% by the end of the year.
“NFV is a reality at SFR,” said Philippe Le May, CTO of SFR. “We are focused on innovating faster and taking bold steps to transform our network operations, delivering customer experiences beyond mobile that set us apart.”
Both Red Hat and Cisco have been actively advancing NFV solutions. At a recent conference in Berlin, Cisco introduced a new hardware platform designed for NFV, positioning it as a fresh approach to building and managing network infrastructure. Meanwhile, Red Hat has been partnering with other industry players to accelerate NFV deployments on OpenStack.
“Red Hat OpenStack Platform enables Altice to create an agile, flexible, and scalable NFV cloud that can meet its modernization goals and deliver new, differentiating services to its customers,” said Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager for Red Hat OpenStack. “We are pleased to work with Altice and Cisco on this transformation initiative.”