Altiostar is a company that provides open virtual

radio access network A radio access network (RAN) is part of a mobile telecommunication system implementing a radio access technology (RAT). Conceptually, it resides between a device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provi ...

(vRAN) technology. The company is headquartered just outside of

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, with offices in Japan, Italy, the U.K., Mexico and India. The company is a subsidiary of Rakuten. Founded in 2011 by President and CEO, Ashraf Dahod, Altiostar is focused on open, virtual RAN software that they claim can integrate operation of equipment from multiple vendors.

History

Altiostar was started by the founders of Starent Networks, a startup bought by

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

in 2009. Altiostar came out of

stealth mode In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, either in total stealth mode when everything about the company is kept secret, or in-company stealth mode which is usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pen ...

in late 2014 after raising $70 million in funding starting in 2012. The company's initial offering was a virtualized Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) solution that connected radios with controllers with

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

, instead of dark fiber. In 2015, the company introduced a virtual radio access network (vRAN) product. In 2017, Altiostar released an Open vRAN Development Platform, allowing independent radio equipment manufacturers to develop a vRAN solution utilizing Altiostar technology. Since its debut, the company has raised $357.5 million from Cisco, Rakuten Mobile,

Qualcomm Ventures Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with 140+ active portfolio companies. Investing in startups targeting the wireless ecosystem, the group focus ...

, Telefonica and

Tech Mahindra Tech Mahindra is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company. It was formed in 1986 as a joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and BT Group. Part of the Mahindra Group, the company is headquartered in Pun ...

among others.

Rakuten

In 2019,

Rakuten is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around the online retail marketplace Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing Fintech, digital content and communi ...

Mobile invested in Altiostar. In 2020, Rakuten commercially launched its 4G network in Japan, using Altiostar as a software contributor for its 4G RAN, with plans to also use the software for its 5G network. In August 2021, Rakuten acquired Altiostar.

Partners

Altiostar has collaborated with a wide variety of partners to enable 4G and 5G network transformation through its open vRAN solution, including: 2011 – Cisco 2015 –

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

, Qwilt and Wind River 2016 – TIM 2017 – Corning and Dali Wireless and

SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd., abbreviated as SKT ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 perce ...

2018 –

Amdocs Amdocs Limited is a multinational telecommunications technology company headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri. The company specializes in software and services for communications, media and financial services providers and digital enterprise ...

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

, GCI, Sercomm, Telefónica and Vodafone 2019 –

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

, Rakuten,

Telecom Infra Project The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) was formed in 2016 as an engineering-focused, collaborative methodology for building and deploying global telecom network infrastructure, with the goal of enabling global access for all. TIP is jointly steered by i ...

(TIP) and Ubicquia 2020 –

Airspan Airspan Networks is an American telecommunications company, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company develops Radio Access Network technology including the Sprint 'Magic Box' and cells (both small and macro) for the Rakuten virtualized ...

, Bharti Airtel, NEC Corporation (NEC) and World Wide Technology

Awards

2015 – Fierce Innovation Awards (Telecom Edition) - Next-Gen Deployment for NFV C-RAN Solution 2016 – GLOTEL Global Telecoms Awards “Highly Recommended” for Innovative Use of Spectrum 2017 –

GSMA The GSM Association (GSMA) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit trade association that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More than 750 mobile operators are full GSMA members and a further 400 companies in the bro ...

GLOMO Award - Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough and Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO's choice for vRAN Solution 2019 – GSMA 100 2019 – Intel Network Builders Winners’ Circle 2019-2020 Leaders Board

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.altiostar.com/ Companies based in Massachusetts 2011 establishments in Massachusetts