A rugby match at Twickenham was used as a secret test for the future of British telecoms
On a packed afternoon at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, tens of thousands of rugby fans cheered England against Italy in a Six Nations clash. But while the action on the pitch was intense, an experiment was unfolding just outside the stadium.
As part of the government-backed 5G MoDE (Mobile O-RAN for Highly Dense Environments) project, Virgin Media O2 and its partners rolled out a temporary “Cell on Wheels” (COW) using Open RAN technology in the O2 Blueroom fanzone.
The system carried real customer traffic alongside the existing commercial network during the match, handling the massive spike in data demand from fans posting videos, checking scores, and streaming highlights.
The trial, detailed in a new case study from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) published on Wednesday (1 April), 2026, marked a significant real-world validation for Open RAN – the push to make mobile networks more open, interoperable, and less dependent on a handful of dominant equipment suppliers.
The ultimate stress test
Stadiums like Twickenham represent some of the toughest environments for mobile networks: “high demand density” (HDD) scenarios where thousands of people simultaneously try to upload, download, and connect in a confined space. Traditional networks can struggle with congestion, leading to dropped calls, slow speeds, and frustrated users.
The 5G MoDE project, funded under the UK’s broader Open Networks Ecosystem Competition, which awarded around £80.5 million across multiple initiatives, set out to prove that Open RAN could perform under these extreme conditions.
The temporary Open RAN setup successfully supported calls, data services, and interoperability with the legacy network. Key learnings included optimising power usage, network configuration in dense venues, and rigorous testing for emergency calls.
Part of a bigger £250 million push to diversify UK telecoms
The test formed part of the UK’s 5G Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Strategy, backed by £250 million in government funding. The Open Networks Ecosystem Competition specifically targeted barriers to Open RAN adoption, funding projects focused on:
- Optimising performance in high-demand environments like sports venues and urban hotspots.
- Developing open, interoperable software, including RAN Intelligent Controllers (RIC).
- Advancing hardware solutions to reduce costs and speed up market readiness.
Other funded projects under the same umbrella explored portable “cell on wheels” systems with 5G broadcast capabilities for events (ONE4HDD) and energy-efficient power amplifiers using advanced semiconductors (SWaP+C). A separate £6 million ARIANE project worked on intelligent software to automate network optimisation and reduce energy use.
The overarching aim is to reduce reliance on a small number of global suppliers – historically dominated by companies like Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei – and build a more resilient, innovative, and domestically supported telecoms ecosystem.
Open RAN promises greater flexibility, faster innovation through multi-vendor competition, and potentially lower long-term costs, though somechallenges around integration, performance, and security remain.
