Share this article Companies to collaborate with Intel and Supermicro to bring cost-effective rural and urban coverage NASHUA, N.H., April 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Parallel Wireless, Inc., the leading U.S.-based Open RAN company, today announced its partnership with Etisalat, one of the world's leading telco operators in Afghanistan (recognized by Ookla® Speedtest® as the world's fastest mobile network in 2020) to deliver the world's first cloud-native O-RAN compliant 5G 4G 3G 2G Open RAN solutions, in collaboration with Intel and Supermicro, becoming the first in Central Asia to implement Open RAN. Afghanistan has seen a strong increase in mobile broadband with penetration reaching 22% in 2019 up from 1% in 2013. While mobile broadband is still in its early stages of development, growth is expected in 2022.