The New South Wales Telco Authority has selected NEC Australia to build the initial phase of the 5G innovation lab as part of its new strategic partnership.

The lab, which will run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and provide 5G test bed in the cloud, will also provide an environment for the NSW Telco Authority and public safety agencies to explore technologies, interoperability and mobile technology in the context of Public Safety Mobile Broadband (PSMB) applications.

This first phase of the 5G Innovation lab will be expected to help the NSW Telco Authority to test the latest cloud native core technology alongside Open RAN, explore cloud deployment options (to align with the NSW government ‘s ‘public cloud first’ policy), build PSMB use cases and provide emergency service organisations (ESOs) with the mobile broadband capacity to facilitate easier communication and situational awareness, the firm said.

“NEC is honoured to be a strategic partner to NSW Telco Authority to help build practical and effective PSMB use cases and prove the value of a cloud native 5G core network combined with Open Radio Access Network (Open-RAN),” Krisztian Som, Head of 5G Sales, Asia Pacific at NEC, said.

Under the terms of the deal, NEC Australia will deliver a turnkey end-to-end solution to design, supply, install and commission its cloud native 5G core on public cloud, in conjunction with a local distributed User Plane Function (UPF).

NEC will also provide 5G Open RAN virtualised centralised and distributed (CU/DU) units, Open Radio Units (O-RUs) and CPE’s (Customer Premises Equipment) to leverage applications for the NSW Telco Authority.

The firm has been a long-term strategic partner to the NSW Telco Authority providing wireless backhaul solution for the NSW Public Safety Network (PSN) program.