Airspan Networks Wins Two 2021 Fierce Telecom Innovation Awards

Judged best in both the Private Networks Category (Network In a Box Innovation) and the Digital Divide Category

Airspan Networks Inc., a subsidiary of Airspan Networks Holdings Inc. (NYSE American: MIMO), a U.S.-based provider of groundbreaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G networks, has been named the winner of two 2021 Fierce Telecom Innovation Awards, in the categories of Private Networks and Digital Divide. Airspan was the only company to win two innovation awards in this year’s competition.

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Nearly 40 Airspan 5G Starter Kits/Network in a Box have been deployed globally to meet various network use case requirements, contributing to rapid private networks expansion and promoting 5G adoption. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Fierce Telecom, which receives hundreds of submissions for the Innovation Awards annually, has announced this year’s winners in the 12 award categories. Airspan was named best for both its Amarillo Connected Digital Divide solution for low-income students and residents in Amarillo, TX, and for its innovative 5G Starter Kit – A Network in a Box solution that is powering dozens of Private Network deployments and collaborations around the world.

Airspan’s 5G Starter Kit is a fully-functional 5G Stand Alone (SA) Open RAN network solution that fits in a box, making it easy to get started with 5G. The innovation resides in the Kit’s simplicity and flexibility. A customer can turn on a 5G SA Private Network in just days – not months. As an Open RAN leader, Airspan understands integration is a main challenge for faster adoption, which is why we provide plug & play deployment capability, reducing time to market. The Starter Kit’s software updates include the latest features from 3GPP and the O-RAN Alliance, support CUPS to bring deployment flexibility for privacy or lower latency requirements, and are designed to reach up to 2.4 Gbps of throughput using 100 MHz bandwidth in sub-6GHz spectrum.

Nearly 40 5G Starter Kits have been deployed globally to meet various use case requirements, including Industry 4.0, connected vehicles and logistics for 5G/Open RAN private network deployments, contributing to rapid private networks expansion, promoting 5G adoption, and accelerating the Open RAN ecosystem worldwide:

• Opticoms Munich Co-Creation Lab: Airspan’s 5G Starter Kit powers the private network testbed to integrate the latest networking, cloud and edge computing
• COCUS selected Airspan to provide its 5G Starter Kit to offer Open RAN-based campus private network services (IoT, Industry 4.0 use cases)
• Sony/Mitsui successfully operated Sony's Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) technology in a stand alone environment, using Airspan’s 5G Starter Kit
• 5G ENCODE/Zeetta Networks: great example of Airspan playing a key role in another wireless network first, as the exclusive Open RAN provider powering innovative 5G manufacturing use cases
• umlaut: umlaut is installing its first 5G campus network in Aachen, Germany, leveraging the benefits of the 5G Starter Kit. The Kit is helping to power its stand alone network, which will be used to test a wide range of potential applications in telecommunications, logistics, manufacturing, health & life sciences, utilities and many other industries
• Mugler: The TU Kaiserslautern is using the 5G Starter Kit to deploy several Private Networks for indoor and outdoor coverage with the latest technology as part of a 5G research project in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The 5G research project is funded by the BMVI (the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure).

“We are very proud to be named winners of two of the 12 Innovation Award categories, and the only company to earn more than one award,” said Airspan Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Henrik Smith-Petersen. “This recognition is a great proof source of our ongoing innovation and leadership in both accelerating the adoption of 5G technology and Private Network use cases and applications, and using our industry-leading Mimosa by Airspan Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) portfolio to provide our connectivity solutions to provide low-cost broadband access to help up to 10,000 students and their families in Amarillo, TX. Amarillo Connected is a model for other municipalities and states to use to help bridge the Digital Divide.”

About Airspan

Airspan Networks Holdings Inc. (NYSE American: MIMO) is a U.S.-based provider of groundbreaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G networks, and a pioneer in end-to-end Open RAN solutions that provide interoperability with other vendors. As a result of innovative technology and significant R&D investments to build and expand 5G solutions, Airspan believes it is well-positioned with 5G indoor and outdoor, Open RAN, private networks for enterprise customers and industrial use applications, fixed wireless access (FWA), and CBRS solutions to help mobile network operators of all sizes deploy their networks of the future, today. With over one million cells shipped to 1,000 customers in more than 100 countries, Airspan has global scale. For more information, visit www.airspan.com.

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