NTIA Targets Radio of the Future With $420M in Federal Grants

NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson announced on Tuesday the agency is making available $420 million in funding to build radio equipment needed to spur open radio access networks in the U.S. and abroad, under Phase 2 of the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. Plans are to make the first grants in the fall, he said. Applications are due July 10. Davidson spoke during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

It’s good to be at NTIA “with resources to do something about the big problems that we’re facing,” Davidson said. “We take it for granted, but connectivity has already transformed our lives,” he said. The 5G gear market remains “static and highly consolidated,” he said. Some vendors pose national security risks, he added.

“The result has been a wireless equipment market where costs are high, resilience is low and American companies are increasingly shut out,” Davidson said. The innovation fund has awarded more than $140 million to 17 projects in the U.S., “but there’s a lot more to come,” he said. The program's next phase is intended to “drive commercialization of open radio units.” The radio units are the largest and most costly part of carrier networks, Davidson said.

“Open and inoperable and trusted networks” are “going to drive competition,” make supply chains more secure and lower costs for consumers, Davidson said. “They will improve resilience and protect our national security,” he predicted.

“Everybody is moving to a digital economy,” said James Lewis, CSIS senior vice president. Countries that do well in that economy will be those “that are powerful and rich in the future, and I hope that’s us,” Lewis said: “We’re on track to do it.” People complain the federal debt is too high, but “if you don’t spend, don’t expect to win,” he said. The Biden administration has done a good job helping the U.S. keep pace with the move to a more digital world, he said.

NTIA expects to grant $25 million-$45 million per commercialization award, and $5 million-$10 million per innovation award, NTIA said. The commercialization awards will focus on accelerating development of open radio unit (RU) products “to the point where they meet carrier needs and are ready for commercial trials,” the agency said. Innovation grants “will focus on improving the overall performance and capabilities of open RUs through targeted research and development.”

Open RUs “have the potential to drive cost savings, energy efficiency and new innovations,” said Sarah Morris, NTIA acting deputy administrator. For open radios to see widespread adoption, they must be cost competitive and “meet or surpass the technical performance of traditional radios.”

The commercialization awards require that equipment makers partner with carriers, Morris said. “Bringing together a seller and a potential customer from the start will increase the likelihood that these projects will be commercially deployed,” she said. The rules require that development of the units must occur in the U.S., though operator, lab and field-testing and other parts of the process can happen overseas, she said. Applicants will have to fund parts of their project.

The goal of the innovation grants is to “advance innovation by funding research across key areas that support future radio performance and capabilities,” Morris said. U.S. and foreign applicants are invited to apply, though the research and development must take place in the U.S., she said. Applicants will have to provide details on how their work can be commercialized after the grant period, she said.

Four years after the first open radio access network deployment by Rakuten in Japan, there have been more than 100 worldwide, including by Dish Wireless in the U.S., said Diane Rinaldo, executive director of the Open RAN Policy Coalition. “We’ve made great progress,” but “we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“This is part of an attempt to have a really comprehensive policy in the U.S. government that ensures access to trusted, secure and interoperable networks,” said Matthew Pearl, National Security Council director and special adviser-emerging technologies.

Pearl said the FCC’s rip-and-replace program is also part of that broader focus (see 2405020071). “We’re working to hopefully get some additional funding in order to complete that,” he said.