vRAN: Parallel Wireless

Gubbins, Ed
August 19, 2020

MARKET DISRUPTOR

REPORT SUMMARY
Parallel Wireless continues to see market traction for its virtual RAN solution – particularly in Africa and the Middle East. But
the vendor will need to strengthen its 5G story soon.

WHAT MAKES THE COMPANY A DISRUPTOR

Among vRAN vendors, Parallel Wireless stands out primarily due to its support for legacy radio access technologies
including 2G and 3G. That has given the vendor a particular appeal among operators with extensive legacy networks
(e.g., Vodafone) and in developing geographies where legacy technologies are still prevalent; much of the operator
wins Parallel has publicized in the past year are within Africa or the Middle East. Parallel has also seen interest
among small operators in the U.S., where political barriers to China-based vendors has left operators with fewer RAN
vendor options. Parallel has racked up more than 60 trials and deployments to date, as well as some big-name
customer references like MTN, Telefonica, Etisalat, and Vodafone, indicating that it’s on the right track.

Another competitive differentiator for Parallel is that its solution’s Field-Programmable Gate Arrays give operators the
flexibility to choose multiple functional splits for their fronthaul networks, including those defined by the 3GPP as
Options 6, 7, and 8. At the same time, the vendor’s lack of support for 5G RAN could limit its appeal among some
operators and enterprises.

JUST THE FACTS

Founded 2012
Funding Private
HQ Nashua, NH
Employees 544
Geographic Parallel is headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, in the U.S. It has offices in the UK, Israel,
Reach and India.

Much of its market momentum has occurred in the Middle East and Africa, where legacy (2G/3G)
network needs persist. The company also claims traction in Latin America and among small
operators in the U.S.
Key Products • Open RAN Controller: A network endpoint orchestrator supporting multiple radio access
 technologies (2G/3G/4G/WiFi) from multiple vendors.
• Baseband Software: Base station software for baseband units as well as Open RAN centralized
and distributed units.
• Converged Wireless System (CWS): Multi-RAT (3G/4G/WiFi) base stations capable of self-
backhaul and coordination via mesh networking.
• Public Safety LTE: An LTE access solution enabling voice, video, data, Push-to-Talk (PTT), and
MMS service for ad hoc use cases with self-healing features and mesh and LTE relay backhaul
capabilities.
Momentum • As of August 2020, Parallel claims more than 60 trials and deployments.
• In 2020, Parallel was selected by Orange (for African deployment), the Ghana Investment Fund,
IpT Peru, Etisalat, and MTN.
• Prior to 2020, Parallel had already counted major operators MTN and Vodafone as customers as
well as small U.S. operators including Inland Cellular, Cellcom, and Optim Era.

GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGIES
• vRAN + Open RAN: Parallel aims to leverage the 'open RAN' movement (favoring disaggregated, multi-vendor
RANs), which aligns well with vRAN architectures. For example, it enables software-only suppliers by allowing their
solutions to be paired with radio hardware from other vendors.

• Radio Hardware Partners: Parallel works with about a half dozen suppliers of Open RAN radio units, including
Comba Telecom, KMW, and AceAxis.

• 2G/3G RAN Support: Parallel supports legacy RAN technologies that its competitors don’t, which has allowed it
to gain momentum in developing geographies such as Latin America, the Middle East and especially Africa, where
legacy technologies still prevail.

• Government Funds: Parallel has had some success in taking advantage of government programs meant to drive
connectivity coverage, such as the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in Africa and
Internet para Todos Perú, an effort backed by Telefónica, Facebook, and others.

KEY CHALLENGES
• 5G RAN Needs: Parallel’s Open vRAN solutions don’t yet support 5G, which the vendor says has not been widely
demanded yet by its customers but will be available via software upgrade in the future. This could put Parallel at a
disadvantage among those operators that are interested in 5G now or soon.

• vRAN Reluctance: Some operators are hesitant to adopt vRAN, since (a) it represents a major departure from
their networks' historical architecture and (b) they hear arguments against vRAN's value from established RAN
vendors.

• Open RAN Reluctance: Some operators will be reluctant to adopt a multi-vendor open RAN model, as it may be
more complex in terms of network management and supplier relationships than traditional single-vendor networks.

• Startup/Pure Play: Some operators are cautious about working with small firms whose resources could make
support of large-scale deployments challenging and whose long-term stability is hard to predict.

ASSESSING THE MARKET LANDSCAPE

 For years, mobile network operators have been virtualizing aspects of their networks - replacing dedicated,
specialized network hardware with software functions residing on general-purpose, commodity servers. Virtualization
can lower the cost structure of networks and give operators more flexibility and agility in making changes.

In the early stages of this trend, operators focused on virtualizing more centralized parts of the network, including
the packet core. Over time, focus has shifted to virtualizing the radio access network (RAN). But RAN virtualization
entails a different set of considerations than virtualizing other parts of the network (e.g., separating centralized
versus distributed functions, etc.).

Increasingly, some vendors, including startups, have seen vRAN as a way to disrupt the market and compete with
traditional RAN vendors that are naturally resistant to dismantling the cost structure of their hardware-based
businesses. The task then for vRAN proponents has been to convince mobile operators to usher in this major
departure for network architectures - a task that is still ongoing but appears to be getting easier, as evidenced by
the rising level of vRAN activity, including operator trials and deployments. In addition, the progress being made by
vRAN showcase deployments such as Rakuten’s in Japan are helping to popularize the concept.

RELATED GLOBALDATA RESEARCH

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• NEC Pairs Netcracker and Altiostar for a More Cohesive Open vRAN Offering

• Samsung Takes the Lead in vRAN Commercialization, Adding Fuel to Disruptive Market Forces

• Nokia Breaks from Top Rivals, Driving vRAN & ORAN Disruption

• MWC-LA19: vRAN Momentum Rising

• Mavenir Analyst Day: Evolving Its Broad Virtualization Story, Mavenir’s RAN Capabilities Are Ramping Up

FINDING THE DISRUPTORS

GlobalData’s “Market Disruptor” series of reports recognize up-and-coming vendors offering a new approach to the
market as identified by our analysts. The vendors chosen as “Market Disruptors” share some or all of the following
characteristics:

1) They challenge the status quo of an established industry segment.

2) They are embracing innovative, new operating models.
3) They are seeking to define and monetize an entirely new segment or revenue opportunity.
4) They are looking to redefine the segment's value chain.
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