Open RAN vendor Parallel Wireless is expanding its presence to additional regions with the launch of a new R&D lab and test facility in Canada to advance 5G radio access network efforts.
U.S.-based Parallel is headquartered in New Hampshire and although the company has been around for a decade, it’s more recently made a name for itself as an emerging vendor in the open RAN space. It touts its “All G” O-RAN- compliant software-based products that span 2G-5G, and counts more than 60 mobile operator customers.
In addition to the new 5G lab located in Ottawa, Parallel already has R&D centers in India, Israel, the U.K. and Sweden.
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As part of the push into Canada, the vendor named Maxime Dumas as general manager of Parallel Wireless Canada to lead the company’s expansion efforts in the country. Dumas was a founding member of Canada-based NuRAN Wireless, where he most recently served as president and CEO. NuRAN supplies mobile and wireless broadband infrastructure, including RAN, core network and backhaul products. He’s also actively involved in the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).
"The vision for Parallel Wireless in Canada is to have a stellar R&D team in Ottawa, creating best-in-class Open RAN solutions for MNOs across Canada and beyond,” Dumas said in a statement. “The team of 'Reimaginers' in Canada are empowered, inspired, and motivated to deliver state-of-the-art networks providing wireless broadband communications to enhance lives and strengthen economies."
Parallel is also looking to beef up its employee base in Canada, actively hiring in the Kanata, Ottawa region as well as Montreal and Quebec City for roles related to 4G and 5G radio access. Some of the open positions its looking to fill including 5G massive MIMO engineers, software and systems architects , engineers across physical layer and protocol stack, and embedded platform software developers, among several others.
In September, Parallel said the company’s global team had doubled in size over the last two years in engineering, IT, quality assurance, and program and project management. Plans for hiring in Canada also speak to comments by Parallel VP Eugina Jordan, who previously told Fierce the company’s goal is to double its employee base by the end of 2022, as it prepares for the next level and scaling the market.
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Parallel has had a number of open RAN deployments and trials, including with Vodafone in Africa, Asia and Ireland. In May the vendor secured a win with Millicom to provide the first O-RAN compliant network in Latin America supporting 4G services.
As for the new lab itself, Parallel plans for employees to collaborate with those at leading Canadian universities and also help operators in the country deploy cost-effective open RAN solutions.
Canada wrapped up a 5G spectrum auction in August, where carriers collectively spent $7.2 billion for licenses in the 3.5 GHz band.
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Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson commented on the new Parallel facility and efforts to make the region a key 5G hub.
"Parallel Wireless is an excellent addition to Ottawa's world-class telecom ecosystem and their arrival further strengthens our city's position as Canada's leading 5G hub,” Watson said in the announcement. “Through Invest Ottawa's continued support of this exciting expansion I look forward to following the development of this world-class R&D facility over the coming months."