Mavenir Says ORAN Could Help Lower Rip-and-Replace Costs

Mavenir told the FCC use of open radio access networks would save significant money over use of traditional telecom equipment, in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-89. The FCC reported providers requested $5.6 billion from an FCC program to cover the cost of ripping and replacing Huawei and ZTE gear from their networks, nearly triple the $1.9 billion allocated in a federal fund (see 2202040066). Mavenir can replace gear at an average $420,000 per site, the company said. “Based on publicly available information about the wireless equipment and services that need to be replaced by the Reimbursement Program applicants, it appears that this is about one-third of the average cost of the submitted wireless applications,” Mavenir said: “The Replacement Program could be completed for up to $2 billion less than currently requested if all of the wireless applicants were to use Mavenir’s solution (or a vendor that is similarly cost competitive).”