Japan’s telecom equipment provider NEC has acquired Ireland’s Aspire Technology.
The acquisition now enables NEC to expand its capacity to bring end-to-end Open RAN ecosystems, as well as system design and integration for legacy networks, to international operators.
In a statement, NEC’s 5G Strategy and Business General Manager, Naohisa Matsuda said, "NEC has made a strong, public commitment to providing leadership in the rollout of Open RAN. Part of that commitment is building out our ability to serve as the prime system integrator for global operators as they adopt Open Networks at their own pace. The SI business is all about people and expertise. The strong capabilities and the deep pool of talented engineers at Aspire Technology, combined with their portfolio of technology solutions and applications, is a big step forward for our NEC Open Networks strategy. NEC is now better prepared than any supplier to integrate disaggregated network components into a well-tuned ecosystem."
NEC has already established a footprint in the OpenRAN ecosystem, offering hardware, software and systems integration services to major telecom companies across the globe.
Meanwhile, Aspire Technology’s Founder and CEO Bill Walsh said that this acquisition will be an advantage to their customers: "We believe the combination of NEC and Aspire Technology will provide tremendous benefits to our customers, both legacy network-based and those evolving to the more Open environment, and also to the broader 5G and Open RAN marketplace, which is growing rapidly. We share a common vision of the 5G and Open RAN market, and a history of delivering complex integration projects with some of the largest carriers in the world. Together, we create a compelling and comprehensive 5G solutions portfolio."
This new development also improves NEC’s capabilities by extending its portfolio of technology solutions as well as its experienced resources and expertise.
