Light Regulatory ORAN Hand Important, FCC Told

Industry commenters told the FCC that open radio access networks are the future for telecom infrastructure in comments on a March notice of inquiry (see 2103170049). FCC Democrats and Republicans emphasize the importance of open networks to building secure networks, free of equipment from Huawei and ZTE (see 2104260054). Comments, due Wednesday, stressed the need for standards and asked Congress to fund ORAN research.

“Network operators traditionally built networks by interconnecting components that serve different functions,” AT&T said: “The past decade has signaled a paradigm shift, as network operators with hardware centric networks transform to software defined networks.” AT&T “expects to incorporate O-RAN compliant equipment into its network within the next year.” The FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act created an NTIA-managed ORAN R&D fund yet to be funded (see 2012040043), AT&T noted in docket 21-63.

“Support robust funding of Open RAN grants to bring the ecosystem to scale and provide carriers working to ‘Rip-and-Replace’ currently installed equipment and services more time to adopt and deploy Open RAN solutions,” said Dish Network: It has agreements with more than 20 companies on its ORAN-based 5G network.

Verizon is “working toward the incorporation of Open RAN solutions into its network,” it said. The move to open networks “will be a complex technical journey, and there is yet much work to be done to ensure seamless interoperability while minimizing complexity for network operators,” Verizon said.

T-Mobile warned that industry has work to do. “Departing from the successful long-standing policy on technology neutrality by imposing any regulatory obligations will potentially freeze immature technology in place instead of permitting the natural technological evolution that has created the current world-class U.S. wireless networks,” the carrier said.

ORAN is “promising and worthy of further exploration and development,” the Competitive Carriers Association said: Adopt “policies that foster research, development, and testing of Open RAN solutions, as well as provide education about the potential benefits.” The Rural Wireless Association said ORAN will give smaller carriers “more visibility into their networks which will improve security” and “allow upgrades through software rather than hardware.”

The ORAN Policy Coalition urged the FCC to “identify and address regulatory barriers” and “work with stakeholders to promote a robust global market that includes suppliers based in the United States and its partners.” Allow carriers to use the rip-and-replace program to deploy ORAN “both in the near-term and longer term,” the coalition said. Members include American Tower, AT&T, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Dish, Facebook, Microsoft, Qualcomm and other manufacturers and carriers.

The Telecommunications Industry Association called ORAN “the natural next step for network technology.” TIA said its Supply Chain Security Workgroup, created last year, is developing process-based supply chain standards, targeted for release in Q3.

Nokia stressed the importance of standards. “The most important next step” is “the progressing of all of the specifications under development by the O-RAN Alliance to an advanced stage suitable to enable robust conformance and interoperability testing and to ensure a vibrant ecosystem of products,” Nokia commented. “Remain stalwart in advancing 5G,” Ericsson said. “Maintain technological neutrality. Promote test beds. Support U.S. participation in standards groups. Do not delay rip-and-replace.”

Vodafone and Qualcomm Technologies are working together to develop a “technical blueprint” for building 5G networks using ORAN technology, they said Thursday. “The move aims to lower the entry barrier for many companies and drive diversification of network equipment vendors,” the companies said. The agreement means a “paradigm shift in the way mobile networks are implemented and will mark a point of no-return away from vertically integrated infrastructure,” ABI Research said: “This is particularly important for many European operators who have been given strict deadlines to strip out Huawei equipment from their networks.” ABI predicts ORAN equipment will exceed 40% of all RAN equipment deployed in 2026.