Fragmentation and funding headline House's open RAN hearing

Some of the top proponents of open RAN in the US warned lawmakers that the technology remains in danger of sliding into irrelevance if trends toward fragmentation and proprietary solutions continue.

"Open RAN architectures aim to provide a more modular and flexible approach, making it easy for operators to replace or upgrade individual components or even suppliers, while increasing competition in the market," explained John Baker, a top executive with open RAN vendor Mavenir, in testimony to a House subcommittee.

However, Baker warned, there can be different flavors of open RAN. "Just as open RAN has been embraced by nearly all within the industry, we risk repeating history by having suppliers again lock up networks with proprietary solutions that are only partially based on O-RAN Alliance specifications," he explained. "Thus, a company can call its offering 'open RAN' without actually satisfying the criteria to be truly open RAN. These vendors refer to themselves as single suppliers of open RAN, and they threaten to upend the benefits that open RAN offers."

Similarly, a top Dish Network executive warned of possible open RAN fragmentation. "In many ways, the industry is still in the early stages of open RAN adoption," Dish's Jeff Blum wrote in his own testimony. "And, as is often the case when new technologies proliferate, there can be a splintering around standards and how best to incorporate those standards into an existing or new system. Policymakers should be aware that a standards split would harm open RAN, since it would make integration more challenging across different vendors and carriers, limiting supplier diversity. Open RAN must stay committed to its foundational principle of true interoperability."

Dish, for its part, touts a nationwide 5G network running open RAN software across more than 20,000 cell sites.

Reflections on current events

The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, part of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, is scheduled to hold a hearing on open RAN on Wednesday. Among its topics: "What is the future of O-RAN and V-RAN technology?"

The issue is pressing considering open RAN has made several major strides forward in recent weeks. Chief among those is AT&T's new five-year, $14 billion agreement with Ericsson that involves open RAN technology.

"Mavenir applauds AT&T's decision to launch open RAN and welcomes Ericsson to the open RAN ecosystem. We look forward to partnering with them and would welcome the opportunity to interoperate with Ericsson, just as we recently did with Nokia," Baker, the Mavenir executive, said.

However, some have argued that AT&T's single-vendor agreement with Ericsson doesn't adhere to the multivendor spirit of open RAN. Indeed, Ericsson recently began backing a new iteration of the open RAN specification that some worry could lead to fragmentation.

"Competition amongst vendors to be the best provider of each component fosters innovation and quality while lowering prices," Dish's Blum explained.

"Single vendor open RAN will hurt the telecommunications leadership that the US is working so hard to achieve," Mavenir's Baker added.

Regardless, most analysts expect open RAN overall to remain a tiny part of the global wireless industry for years to come.

Searching for solutions

Mavenir, Dish and others at the hearing urged lawmakers to support a handful of strategic initiatives they said could propel open RAN forward.

Dish, for its part, urged regulators to promote open RAN technology among smaller US wireless network operators. Indeed, the FCC is scheduled to allocate around $9 billion for 5G in rural areas as part of the 5G Fund, and some have argued that cash should be funneled toward open RAN operations.

Others at the hearing called for a "formal" certification process for open RAN equipment.

"The US government should work with allied governments to encourage operators to fully embrace the deployment of open and interoperable networks and publicly support calls for a certification body to ensure that networks are indeed compliant with O-RAN Alliance specifications. Otherwise, networks will remain locked by a single vendor, belying the very benefits that open RAN bestows," Baker argued. 

Kristian Toivo, executive director of the Telecom Infra Project, reiterated his argument that TIP could play such a role – albeit with "relatively modest public funding."

Finally, the director of the Open RAN Policy Coalition, Diane Rinaldo, argued that the US and its allies should continue to promote open RAN around the world. The US State Department believes doing so can create a Western block against Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE.

But Rinaldo urged lawmakers to make it easier for open RAN vendors to receive financial support. Specifically, she said the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) should have the ability to "waive certain statutory financial risk restrictions" when they're considering open RAN projects.

"It would provide a market-based mechanism to help level the playing field and allow trusted suppliers to compete, win bids and advance US interests," she said. That's a nod to claims that Huawei and other Chinese vendors sell equipment at an unfair discount thanks to backing from the Chinese government.

The bigger picture

The House hearing is focusing on a relatively narrow set of niche technologies that typically would only interest networking engineers. But it's doing so because some US policymakers hope that open RAN technology will in part help foster the development of domestic wireless network equipment suppliers.

In that regard open RAN hasn't yet succeeded. Mavenir is perhaps the leading US-based vendor supporting open RAN, but the company has faced its share of troubles. Other US-based open RAN hopefuls like Airspan and Parallel Wireless have also run into challenges.

But they're not alone. Big equipment vendors – both of the traditional and open variety – have also reported sluggish sales in recent months.

Moreover, open RAN remains a rarity among US network operators. For example, few companies in the FCC's "rip and replace" program opted to transition to open RAN – despite the possibility the technology would be cheaper. Instead, in their efforts to tear out equipment from Huawei and ZTE, most elected to use "traditional" suppliers like Nokia and Ericsson.

Nevertheless, the US government continues to push open RAN both domestically and globally. Domestically, the NTIA is in the process of doling out a total of $1.5 billion to promote the technology among US companies. And internationally, US diplomats and their allies continue to work to rally support against Chinese equipment vendors with open RAN as a lever.

But that effort too doesn't appear to have enjoyed concrete success. Huawei, for its part, recently forecast 9% revenue growth, in part due to a recovery in its smartphone business.