A growing number of Taiwan-based IT companies are showing great interest in catering to the network equipment market, aiming to roll out related solutions for the 5G Open RAN sector, according to industry sources.

Compal Electronics has announced recently that it is teaming up with Cisco Systems to explore the 5G AIoT market and to serve enterprise clients with diverse end-to-end 5G AIoT devices and solutions.

Prior to signing a deal with Cisco, Compal also reached a collaborative agreement with Lions Taiwan Technology to develop small-cell base stations for 5G RAN networks.

Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) announced much earlier that it is tying up with the Tainan government in Taiwan and will offer the city with its n79 standalone (SA) 5G networks to drive the local 5G development.

Together with QCT's RAN, edge and core network technologies as well as its integrated software and hardware solutions, the 5G n79 network will serve as the best case scenario for carrying out POC (proof of concept) for various 5G vertical applications needed for the city, said the sources.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economics Affairs (MOEA) has also initiated a project calling for Taiwanese IT companies to join forces to develop related equipment for the Open RAN equipment market.

The Open RAN equipment market is expected to top NT$50 billion (US1.748 billion) by 2022, MOEA has estimated.

Network device specialist Sercomm reportedly has teamed up with Japan's Rakuten, America's Sprint and India's Bharti Airtel to develop and produce small cells for Open RAN networks, added the source.

Sercomm revealed that shipments of 5G small base stations to Japan will begin to generate revenues in 2020, with prospects to also start ramping up shipments of 5G CPE devices in 2021.