Qualcomm acquires Cellwize for $350M to accelerate 5G deployments

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Qualcomm Technologies today acquired Israel-based Cellwize Wireless Technologies, a developer of mobile network automation and management, for about $350M. Qualcomm said this will further accelerate the company as a leader in 5G Radio Access Networks (RAN) innovation and adoption.

Qualcomm said the acquisition will help accelerate deployments of both public and private networks, which will ultimately benefit many types of technologies, including 5G-connected robots. There are several ways robots could benefit from 5G, but the main way is through the increased speed 5G offers compared to 4G. These enhanced speeds could help enable high quality teleop experiences and reduce latency for data ingestion.

“Global mobile operators and private enterprises are deploying 5G networks at an unprecedented pace across several vertical industries with the goal of connecting everyone and everything to the cloud,” a Qualcomm spokesperson told The Robot Report via email. “The addition of Cellwize’s best-in-class RAN automation technologies strengthens Qualcomm’s ability to fuel the digital transformation of industries, power the connected intelligent edge, and support the growth of the cloud economy; all of which will ultimately affect robotics deployments.”

The addition of Cellwize’s cloud-native, multi-vendor RAN automation and management platform with Qualcomm’s industry-leading 5G RAN offerings is anticipated to provide:

• RAN automation and management software solution that will accelerate the development of the connected intelligent edge through the deployment 5G private and public networks by reducing network deployment time and simplifying network management
• Programmable solution enabling an application ecosystem (marketplace) for differentiation and customization across several vertical industries
• Horizontal solution enabling a simple management of multi-vendor ecosystem for open virtualized networks
• Flexible RAN architecture solution (Open RAN, virtualized RAN, and traditional RAN) and multigenerational support

Industry leaders shared the following thoughts on the acquisition:

“Bell welcomes Qualcomm Technologies’ acquisition of Cellwize as the synergy will help advance the telecom ecosystem by delivering open, cloud-native and flexible networks to meet the performance demands at the edge. We look forward to continuing to work with them on infrastructure and automation innovation to ensure a more customer-centric network of the future,” said Stephen Howe, chief technology and information officer, Bell.

“As the network complexity increases driven by wide variety of frequency bands, massive MIMO and multi vendor disaggregated network (Open RAN), network automation and orchestration is key to manage this complexity and realize operational efficiencies,” said Abdurazak Mudesir, group chief technology officer, Deutsche Telekom. “We are pleased with this announcement as Cellwize, in which we have been invested through DTCP since 2018, is well positioned to help automate and orchestrate the next generation network experience. We look forward to continuing working with Qualcomm Technologies and Cellwize on the next phase of automation.”

“HPE is pleased with this announcement as it helps further consolidate and accelerate our joint value proposition with Qualcomm Technologies and Cellwize, two strategic partners with whom we have been working closely. HPE’s leadership in Telco infrastructure, specifically in end-to-end automation and operations support systems, together with Qualcomm Technologies leading RAN platform and Cellwize’s RAN Automation and management solution, represents a winning combination to address the RAN disaggregation market opportunity and accelerate its adoption in the Telco Industry,” said Domenico Convertino, vice president, product management, HPE Communications Technology Group.

“The Microsoft Azure private MEC solution, together with Qualcomm Technologies’ leading RAN platform and Cellwize’s RAN Automation and management solution, represents a powerful combination that will help accelerate 5G adoption and simplify deployment and management of intelligent 5G edges for a broad range of industries and use cases,” said Martin Lund, corporate vice president, Azure for Operators.

“Verizon has been at the forefront of developing a differentiated 5G network that will serve as the 21st century platform for innovation,” said Ed Chan, chief technology officer, Verizon. “RAN optimization through automation is key in achieving this vision. We are very pleased to see Qualcomm Technologies expanding its already innovative infrastructure solutions with the acquisition of Cellwize’s RAN automation and management solution which we have been utilizing as our foundation to the Verizon SON architecture. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies on building the future 5G world.”