How American 5G operators learned to love open RAN

Open RAN is suddenly back in vogue among big US wireless network operators. That's in part because the Biden administration is hoping to show some progress on the topic after years of hyping open RAN as a "Huawei killer."

The truth though is that open RAN among established 5G operators in the US remains a work in progress. Companies like AT&T and Verizon began attempting to implement specifications from the O-RAN Alliance several years ago, and they'll probably still be doing that several years from now.

Indeed, AT&T tested open RAN designs in 2020, and in 2021 the company told the FCC it would introduce open RAN equipment into its network "within the next year." Similarly, a top Verizon official told Light Reading in 2021 that the company would deploy open RAN-compliant equipment that year.

Now, in 2024, the new thing is that both companies are making open RAN a talking point.

"The best way to assess integration across the industry is to go big – which is why AT&T and Verizon came together to assemble a broad consortium," explained Robert Soni, AT&T's VP of RAN technology, in a post to the company's website. 

AT&T and Verizon on Monday announced they're getting $42 million from the Biden administration to test open RAN equipment from the likes of Fujitsu, Mavenir, Dell Technologies, Intel, Radisys, Rakuten, Red Hat, VMWare by Broadcom and Wind River Systems.

"We've been talking about the benefits of a more flexible approach to wireless infrastructure for years, and we look forward to getting even further into the nuts and bolts as part of this testing," explained Soni, who is emerging as AT&T's open RAN spokesperson – he's scheduled to represent the company during an O-RAN Alliance summit at the upcoming MWC Barcelona trade show. Soni is a former executive with Nokia and VMware who moved to AT&T in 2022.

Why now?

A new Washington Post article – tied to the NTIA's latest open RAN funding announcement – helps highlight why the Biden administration is pushing so hard on the open RAN issue.

"A broad administration push is underway to persuade countries around the world to say 'yes' to open RAN and 'no' to Huawei," according to the publication.

"This has been a whole-of-government approach," Alan Davidson, assistant secretary of Commerce and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) administrator, told the Post. "We've been working very closely with the State Department, with the White House ... We're trying to bring all the tools that we have to bear."

The Washington Post notes that the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and others have been funneling millions of dollars into countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo to support open RAN products and services. And Biden himself has discussed open RAN with leaders from India, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

But it's difficult for Biden officials to tout open RAN if American 5G operators aren't solidly on board. That's likely why Verizon and AT&T have made open RAN central to their recent announcements.

For example, AT&T in December inked a massive $14 billion agreement with Ericsson, and boasted that the deal would put the company on the path toward open RAN. Never mind AT&T already told the FCC in 2021 that it would introduce open RAN equipment into its network "within the next year."

And Verizon in January said it now has 130,000 radios in its network capable of using open RAN specifications. Never mind Verizon officials pledged open RAN-compliant equipment in 2021 – and again in 2022 – after Verizon inked its big supply deal with Samsung in 2020 for open RAN-capable equipment.

Even the tone around Massive MIMO – once viewed as beyond the capabilities of open RAN – has changed dramatically in recent months.

"If I look at look at the performance of the O-RAN at this point, it can't do the kind of things like massive MIMO at 16T/16R [to] 64T/64R, those kind of performance measures, we're just not there yet," Verizon's top networking chief, Joe Russo, said in November 2023.

Now, in February 2024, Samsung announced it successfully tested open RAN in its 64T/64R Massive MIMO radios for Verizon. "O-RAN is a very important component of our network evolution strategy," said Verizon's Steven Rice, VP of network planning, in the Samsung release.

It all depends what you mean by 'open' RAN

Part of the trouble here centers on the definition of open RAN. Some view "true" open RAN as a network that uses O-RAN Alliance specifications to connect equipment from one vendor to equipment from a different vendor.

In that respect, neither AT&T nor Verizon is quite there yet. Even Dish Network's open RAN network could be called into question considering Dish recently inked a major supply agreement with Samsung.

Others argue that open RAN deployments are still valid even if they only use one vendor. "Single-vendor open RAN is expected to drive the lion's share of the open RAN market. Multi-vendor open RAN is projected to account for 5% to 10% of total RAN revenues by 2028," according to Dell'Oro Group.

The topic gets even more complicated when the discussion turns to "open RAN compatible" equipment. Exactly which O-RAN Alliance specifications is that equipment compatible with? Are those specifications being used or are they just sitting there? And are the specifications available throughout the entire network or just at one tower?

Ultimately, operators probably don't really care. They just want cheaper equipment. And in that respect, open RAN isn't doing much, according to AT&T CEO John Stankey. "I don't think it's going to move the needle from a capital intensity perspective," he said of AT&T's open RAN deal with Ericsson.

I like to think of open RAN in terms of Legos. Like O-RAN Alliance specs, Legos use standardized connections: Each little bump is exactly 1.7mm tall. That way they all fit together nicely.

As a result, if you shop through enough yard sales, you could probably collect enough Lego pieces to build something that looks a lot like the Millenium Falcon. Or you could buy the Millenium Falcon set from Lego for $850. 

Either way, you still have to actually assemble it.