Mavenir Urges FCC to Move Forward on ORAN Interfaces

Mavenir urged the FCC to adopt open and interoperable interfaces for radio access networks, disputing claims that agency action isn’t ripe. The FCC took comment on open RAN last year, with next steps unclear (see 2108270039). “Some of the comments and ex parte materials in the record wrongly suggest … that it would be premature for the Commission to act on open and interoperable RAN interfaces because they suggest that the technology is not ready for deployment and further testing and standards development are required,” Mavenir said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-63. “This argument is circular and confuses the issue,” the company said: “Open interfaces and interoperability are concepts, not technologies to be developed; they are methods of creating and ensuring competition, and they are not associated with any specific technology or technical standard.” It would make no sense for the commission “to wait until after a market is competitive before requiring that it be competitive, at which point no requirement would be needed," Mavenir said.