TIM (Telecom Italia) has opened one of the first OTIC (Open Test and Integration Center) laboratories in Europe.
The new European OTIC Lab is hosted at TIM Group’s Innovation Laboratories in Turin and has been endorsed by the O-RAN Alliance.
Founded in 2018 by a global group of network operators, the O-RAN Alliance aims to make radio access networks more open, modular and interoperable.
Open RAN is receiving growing support from governments focused on network security, while operators value its potential to boost competition, lower costs, encourage innovation and avoid vendor lock-in.
TIM’s Turin OTIC complies with the criteria and guidelines defined by the O-RAN Alliance. The lab gives the Open RAN ecosystem a neutral environment to validate solutions and accelerate technology adoption across Europe.
As Alok Shah, Vice President of Networks Strategy at Samsung Electronics America, explained in a recent blog post, a shared OTIC platform and harmonized processes help vendors speed up the development of robust RAN technologies and products ready for real-world deployment.
Initially, OTIC focuses on verifying that RAN components from participating vendors support standardized open interfaces and interoperate successfully according to O-RAN Alliance test specifications.
The Turin facility offers a collaborative, open and impartial environment for qualified testing. RAN equipment from single or multiple suppliers can be evaluated against the O-RAN interface specifications to ensure compatibility and performance.
TIM has been a member of the O-RAN Alliance since 2018. In February the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding similar to the agreement announced earlier by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone, committing to support and deploy Open RAN technologies.
In April, industry reports indicated that TIM planned to be among the first European operators to deploy Open RAN in a live network. TIM states that the initial live deployment went forward in recent days.
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