Rakuten Symphony and Zain Kuwait to pilot cloud-native Open RAN

Rakuten Symphony, a telecommunications subsidiary of Rakuten Group, and Zain Kuwait, a Kuwaiti telecommunications operator, announced on May 26, 2025, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the pilot deployment of cloud-native Open RAN (O-RAN). The project will build the first Open RAN network in Kuwait and deploy base stations using the 5G SA method.

This project is the first phase of a large-scale commercial deployment of Open RAN by the Zain Group, which operates in Kuwait and eight other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Rakuten Symphony provides Open RAN-enabled distributed unit (DU) and centralized unit (CU) software and cloud-native virtualization software. Zain, on the other hand, will provide base stations, data centers, 5G SA cores, and associated communication lines.

Rakuten Mobile is also participating in this project. Rakuten Mobile will support the construction of the network by providing and utilizing the O-RAN integration platform technology, which is a result of the "Post 5G Information and Communication System Infrastructure Enhancement R&D Project (JPNP20017)" funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Zain Kuwait's CTO Daaij Al-Oud said, "The collaboration with Rakuten Symphony is an important step in our efforts to transform Kuwait's telecommunications infrastructure," adding, "By piloting the country's first cloud-native Open RAN, network mobility, The pilot of the country's first cloud-native Open RAN aims to take network mobility, efficiency, and scalability to a new level.

Materials

• Rakuten Symphony and Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain Kuwait sign MOU to deploy cloud-native Open RAN
• Rakuten Symphony, Zain Kuwait to deploy cloud-native O-RAN
• Zain Kuwait and Rakuten Symphony launch Open RAN pilot