Rakuten Symphony and Zain Kuwait have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on a pilot project establishing Kuwait’s first functional cloud-native Open RAN network. Leveraging Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN and cloud portfolio, Zain Kuwait will deploy 5G Standalone (5G SA) sites, marking a major milestone for the country’s telecom landscape.
This pilot project serves as the foundation for a broader commercial rollout of Open RAN technology across Kuwait and the wider Zain Group, which operates in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Rakuten Symphony will provide its innovative Open RAN virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and Centralized Unit (vCU) software, alongside cloud-native virtualized software solutions, ensuring the network is fully operational and capable of managing commercial traffic. Zain Kuwait will contribute cell site infrastructure, data center facilities, and 5G SA core network components with associated transport connectivity.
The project also builds on joint research and development efforts led by Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony under Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) program focused on enhanced post-5G infrastructure.
Sharad Sriwastawa, President of Rakuten Symphony, said, “We are proud to support Zain Kuwait in delivering the country’s inaugural Open RAN deployment. Adopting cloud-native, open network principles with Rakuten Symphony’s proven solutions enables Zain Kuwait to achieve greater operational flexibility, faster time-to-market, and improved customer experience.”
Daaij Al-Oud, Chief Technical Officer at Zain Kuwait, commented, “This partnership marks a pivotal step in transforming Kuwait’s telecom infrastructure. Piloting the nation’s first cloud-native Open RAN will unlock unprecedented network agility, efficiency, and scalability. This initiative aligns perfectly with our vision to lead digital innovation in the region and sets the stage for future advancements.”
