Three UK doubles Glasgow mobile speeds in UK-first Open RAN trial

Mobile operator Three UK recently completed the first stage of a “landmark” trial resulting in the UK’s first deployment of open radio access network (Open RAN) technology in a dense urban environment, building on earlier trials that had taken place in rural locations.

The trial is part of the Small Cells ORAN in Dense Areas (Sconda) project, a partnership between Three UK, Mavenir, AWTG, Freshwave, PI Works, the Scotland 5G Centre and Accenture, with the support of Glasgow City Council and financial backing by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Sconda seeks to address the unique technical and commercial challenges of urban areas and will be the first in the world to integrate Open RAN and traditional RAN in a high-density, high-demand environment handling live traffic.

The project will see the creation, integration, optimisation and delivery of an Open RAN network in Glasgow City Centre, integrated with the existing Three UK Core Network and operating alongside its traditional RAN. Sconda will create a small cell densification layer in high-demand urban hotspots to offload the macro traffic and provide a better customer experience.

The Glasgow trial was designed to test the viability of deploying Open RAN in a complex city setting. The centre of Scotland’s largest city was selected to assess how the technology performs in busy, high-traffic areas, where integration with existing infrastructure and multiple technologies presents additional complexity.

The specific Glasgow City Centre location chosen was identified as a current hotspot for Three customers, both in footfall and mobile traffic. The project will handle live traffic from Three customers, aiming to provide improvement in both coverage and capacity. The project will further look to enable automation of network performance within the challenging radio environment of Glasgow city centre.

The trial results are encouraging and provide a strong foundation for further scaling and optimisation of Open RAN in cities

It will also aim to demonstrate how Open RAN can be deployed, integrated and managed within the wider Three network in Glasgow, and evaluate how Open RAN compares with the quality and capacity of a traditional RAN network.

By installing compact Open RAN-compliant small cells on street furniture, Three UK said it has delivered “impressive results”. Specifically, the company revealed that both 4G and 5G speeds doubled at peak times, with 5G speeds reaching up to 520Mbps. The improved performance is also said to help ease congestion on surrounding network sites by increasing overall capacity.

Following the successful trial of 18 live sites in Glasgow, the project will now move into its final deployment phase, expanding to a total of 34 Open RAN small cell sites across the city centre.

Commenting on the Glasow trial, Three UK chief network officer Iain Milligan said: “This is the UK’s first Open RAN trial to tackle the real-world complexity of a dense urban environment. Urban deployments bring a different level of technical and operational challenge compared to rural environments. We’ve had to navigate integration with legacy systems, security layers and evolving software – all while delivering measurable improvements for customers. The trial results are encouraging and provide a strong foundation for further scaling and optimisation of Open RAN in cities.”