Open RAN isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the foundation for a more agile, cost-effective, and future-ready network. As demands for coverage and capacity grow, the industry needs open, interoperable solutions that break vendor lock-in and accelerate innovation. Here’s why Open RAN matters now more than ever—and what it means for the future of wireless.

News provided by 6WIND via EINPresswire.com

PARIS, FRANCE, April 3, 2025 6WIND, a leading provider of high-performance virtualized and secure networking software solutions, is proud to announce its collaboration with Dense Air, delivering virtual security and routing solutions to power and protect their next-generation Neutral Host offering.

Dense Air is a neutral host-as-a-service provider pioneering shared infrastructure and Neutral Host solutions to extend and enhance mobile coverage and capacity, especially in hard-to-serve areas. Their approach helps MNOs accelerate 5G deployments while improving the economics of connectivity.

Security is a non-negotiable foundation for our Neutral Host services. 6WIND’s vSecGW stands out as the best security gateway solution on the market.

Andy Hobbs, Chief Technology Officer at Dense Air.

As part of this collaboration, 6WIND provides its virtual Security Gateway (vSecGW) to secure Dense Air’s Neutral Host infrastructure. This solution plays a critical role in safeguarding communications between the Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralized Unit (CU) Radio Access Network (RAN) components, while also ensuring secure connectivity to the individual Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that Dense Air serves.

Dense Air’s Neutral Host solution enables high-quality mobile connectivity in venues and locations where providing consistent service has traditionally been challenging. These areas, often characterized by transitory traffic and variable demand, present difficult business cases for MNOs to deploy their own dedicated infrastructure. Dense Air solves this by offering a shared, cost-effective solution that allows multiple MNOs to deliver high-performance services without the overhead of individual deployments.

In addition to vSecGW, 6WIND also provides its virtual Customer Site Router (vCSR) solution to Dense Air, enabling scalable, secure, and flexible connectivity at the edge.

“Security is a non-negotiable foundation for our Neutral Host services,” said Andy Hobbs, Chief Technology Officer at Dense Air. “6WIND’s vSecGW stands out as the best security gateway solution on the market. Its performance, scalability, and reliability give us the confidence to deliver seamless, secure connectivity to our MNO partners in even the most challenging environments.”

We’re excited to support Dense Air in building a more connected future with secure, virtualized networking… Our solutions are designed to meet the high performance and security demands of modern telecom environments, and this deployment with Dense Air reflects our commitment to supporting innovative approaches like Neutral Host.

Julien Dahan, CEO at 6WIND.

This collaboration underscores 6WIND’s commitment to innovative, secure, and scalable networking solutions, empowering operators to expand coverage and improve service quality efficiently.

For more information about this collaboration contact:

Wynter Elwood: media@denseair.net

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Over two days during FYUZ 2024, our team engaged in dynamic discussions and panel sessions covering a range of topics, from Open RAN to TelcoAI. During the event, we sat down with Daniel Herb and Lee Dawson to explore how the industry is evolving toward a venue-pays model to enhance in-building connectivity. We also connected with Andy Hobbs and Neil Jackson to discuss the rapid acceleration of neutral host solutions, from initial ambition to refined execution.

Read more below from the TIP website: Posted Nov. 14th 2024: Telecom Infra Project wraps a successful FYUZ 2024

From November 11th to 13th, 2024, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) held its flagship industry event, Fyuz™, at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) in Ireland. This year’s theme, “Accelerate: Accelerate your deployments, business, and innovation,” set the stage for three days of in-depth discussions and insights into the future of open and disaggregated network technologies.

Fyuz™ 2024 stood out as the only event that comprehensively covers every aspect of open and disaggregated network solutions and Telco AI, attracting a diverse audience of C-Level executives, visionary thought leaders, innovators, and disruptors. The event focused on how the latest developments in network technology can be deployed, scaled, and leveraged to drive business growth and foster industry innovation.

Day 1 zeroed in on accelerating deployments, featuring case studies and updates from the Telecom Infra Project, highlighting practical strategies for implementing open and disaggregated solutions. Day 2 focused on accelerating business growth, with discussions on how organizations can leverage network advancements to unlock new revenue streams and transform their business models. The final day was all about accelerating innovation, diving into how emerging technologies like AI, Open RAN, and other disruptive tools are reshaping the telecom landscape.

Fyuz™ 2024 welcomed 1200 registrants from 51 countries, representing mobile operators and other service providers, vendors, systems integrators, regulators, investors, consultants, analysts, business and trade media, with over 60% of attendees holding senior positions (Director and above). Approximately 30% of all attendees were service providers.

Kristian Toivo, Executive Director of TIP, said, “Building on the positive feedback and recognition we received for Fyuz™ last year, our aim for 2024 was to elevate the event even further for our community, sponsors, and event attendees. We’re thrilled by the level of engagement from our delegates and the meaningful discussions that have taken place here in Dublin. A key focus this year has been on advancing testing and certification across all domains and Telco AI, driving the progress of open and disaggregated networks. Fyuz™ has become the platform where our community can engage in open conversations about these developments, and we’re grateful for their commitment to making this event the industry’s leading forum for innovation and collaboration.”

Urban areas continue to be challenged with congestion of people, structures, and assets. Parking garages need to either be ‘constructed up’ by adding additional floors or built deep underground and under urban structures. The deeper underground facilities are, the harder it is for cellular signals to reach people and places. Critical infrastructure is connected to the cellular network to improve driver and parking experiences. The rise of 5G with towers that broadcast over shorter distances also contributes to increasing cellular coverage gaps and accentuates the interference caused by walls and other barriers. 

City residents, visitors, and workers deserve and expect seamless connectivity experiences from the drive to the walk and upon entering buildings or venues. This requirement is critical for urban structures including high-rise multifamily structures, office buildings, hotels, hospitals, and campuses. 

Millennium Garages and Dense Air Networks joined forces to test modern technology solutions to improve connectivity in one of the four underground parking garages in the heart of Chicago. These parking garages sit underneath the world’s largest green roof that offers 9,176 parking spaces across 4 million square feet. This collaboration includes a focus on targeting hard to reach locations, identifying connectivity gaps, and implementing solutions to enhance smart parking. The target location is a challenging area within the garage: a 200K sq ft area, 2 levels underground in Millennium Garages’ Lakeside facility, under Maggie Daley Park. This test bed uses one set of wireless infrastructure accommodating multiple carriers to provide a secure, flexible, and scalable network to ensure public safety and continuous connectivity underground. 

The overall underground parking environment can present cellular access challenges for many reasons. First, the deeper underground the garage, the more barriers, walls, and structures there are, which degrade cellular signal and can cause a complete signal loss. In addition, garages are constructed of heavy concrete and ready-mix materials that often block signals and present further disruption in connectivity. Highly trafficked urban areas can also present increased data usage that overwhelms the network and causes connectivity issues.  

In the case of Millenium Garages, the location is one of the busiest areas of Chicago. Large seasonal events bring volumes of visitors. The garages are strategically situated along vehicle, pedestrian, and public transportation thoroughfares. They serve as a gateway to Chicago’s world-class cultural institutions, tourist attractions, and central business district.  

Highly populated cities like Chicago focus heavily on innovation and are earlier adopters of digital and connected solutions. Urban structures including standalone parking garages are becoming digital, connected, and intelligent, and Millenium Garages is capturing this trend as it works with Dense Air. Cities like Chicago are also focused on green initiatives and sustainability practices that can bring added complexity as structures require modernization to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs). To progress SDGs, cities need to secure resources including utilities, as energy efficiency and the environment takes priority. Cellular connectivity becomes the fourth utility — alongside water, gas, and electricity — as cities innovate and digitize to create better experiences for locals and tourists alike, enhance city services, and modernize transportation in and out of the city.  

Highly populated and densely structured urban areas often suffer from dead zones, connectivity gaps, and interrupted cell signals. In addition to connectivity, safety and security of people and places is a high priority for owners, leaders, and managers. Connectivity is pivotal for critical communications and for response times as these entities lean on wireless for citizen and worker safety.  

Operations across city services and departments, from parking to transportation to trash pickup, are coordinated, planned, and dispatched using the cellular network. Providing optimal city and workplace services is foundational to the urban city experience. Other examples of buildings and structures that rely on wireless communications include everyday structures frequented for work, play, and living, including condominium and apartment buildings, hospitals, and sporting venues. For example, often just after we park, we are immediately grabbing our smartphone to review emails, to fill out paperwork, locate instructions, find the office number, or exploring where to walk. Having an obstacle for wireless access can frustrate the entire experience. Aging infrastructure and lack of connectivity make these challenges even more difficult to address. 

Dense Air addresses these challenges as a specialist in modernizing urban connectivity. The team works closely with customers to connect underground parking garages, multi-floor buildings, and dense areas throughout cities. Dense Air provides a unique solution for cities, building or structure owners, and facilities managers. We provide turnkey services to identify connectivity gaps, install hardware, implement software, and offer full-service management. This small cell Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution removes the burden to city agencies, departments, and businesses.  

Dense Air’s CaaS solution strengthens cities by: 

• Enabling multiple carriers at the same time, in the same location 
• Facilitating easy, rapid, and cost-efficient integration into existing buildings 
• Ensuring security and reliability of the cellular connection 
• Providing a turnkey service 

Dense Air’s collaboration with Millenium Garages is a notable example of the commitment to supporting urban modernization. The project team will explore a variety of use cases as part of this project to connect customers, workers, and equipment. In addition to bringing two of the big three cellular carriers onto the network, Dense Air will support Millenium Garages in three areas:  

1. Deploy multi-carrier small cell solutions to provide continuous cellular coverage in challenging underground environments.  
2. Build the business and civic case for seamless, integrated connectivity. 
3. Create replicable, scalable models to bring reliable cellular coverage to difficult-to-reach facilities, including CaaS offerings that unlock public and private value.  

Businesses and cities want their infrastructure to do more. Cities require seamless connectivity for emergency response, dispatching prompt maintenance and repairs, routing for a delivery driver, and real-time situational awareness. Dense Air makes this easy by bringing connectivity experts while providing “white glove” turnkey services to lessen the burden. Services include operating, managing, and maintaining connectivity to meet business service level expectations and provide performance reporting with insights into the customer and environment experience. Dense Air is proud to support the modernization of urban areas, changing the paradigm through trusted and secure cellular services. 

Link to Press Release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dense-air–millennium-garages-collaborate-to-transform-cellular-connectivity-underground-302141201.html?tc=eml_cleartime

Related Links and Recommendations for More Reading: 

Small Cell Forum Use Case: Dense Air’s pioneering use of Split 6 enabling scaled small cell deployment. 

Pioneering the use of Split 6 fronthaul for scaled deployment of small cell clusters in network blackspots