Gov't Has a Role on ORAN, Says NTIA's Wray

Open radio access networks “should be industry led, but ... there is a role for governments to play,” said Jaisha Wray, NTIA associate administrator-international affairs. Government “recognizes that many network operators in the United States, and really across the world, are facing limited options,” she told the virtual OpenRAN Forum Tuesday: The limits “can reduce supply chain resilience and contribute to higher prices for operators and consumers in the long run,” she said. The biggest motivation for carriers opting for ORAN is wanting more choices of gear suppliers, said Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro vice president. “They want to have a broader selection from the get-go." U.S. government efforts against Huawei are working and the Chinese company had a 3%-4% drop between last year and today in global market share, he said. Globally, providers spend as much as $40 billion a year on RAN equipment, he said. Dell’Oro estimates 80% of operators are investing in ORAN or considering doing so, he said: “It’s a broad-based movement. It’s strong right now.” NTIA, which held 5G listening sessions (see 2102250056), is continuing its focus on open networks, noted Wray. ORAN is ready to be deployed and the performance is “at par” with legacy systems, said Stefano Cantarelli, Mavenir executive vice president. “We have had several implementations where we have seen all of the requirements of operators being met.” More radio units are coming to market, he said. Analog Devices first became involved with ORAN three years ago and knew then that development would take time, said Joseph Barry, vice president of the company’s Wireless Communications Business Unit. “It’s essentially on track in terms of deployment at scale” though this pandemic slowed things down by “one or two quarters,” he said: “We’re seeing a lot of good progress in the near term but also a lot to be done in the next one to two years in terms of its ultimate large-scale deployment.” Work remains on power savings, beam forming and digital functionalities needed for massive multiple-input and multiple-output radios, he said.