The Ericsson membership aims to accelerate 5G development and the way to 6G.

Read the full announcement here.

January 10, 2024 - WASHINGTON, USA – Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded nearly $80 million in the third round of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s first Notice of Funding Opportunity. This round includes the first awards in the Testing & Evaluation (T&E) category, designed to expand industry-accepted T&E activities, making testing more accessible to the entire wireless ecosystem.

Read the full announcement here.

Nokia and Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) today announced that they have begun to deploy a multi-vendor Open RAN network with Fujitsu in Germany. The technology is fully integrated into DT’s live commercial network and the initial cluster will provide 2G, 4G, and 5G commercial services to customers in the Neubrandenburg area of Northern Germany. The deal marks a significant return for Nokia into DT’s commercial network and is the realization of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both companies at MWC 2023. Nokia will replace the incumbent vendor in the deal. The project is already underway and will be extended from Q1 2024 onwards.

Read the full press release from Nokia - link

With “1&1 O-RAN”, the German mobile network provider 1&1 operates Europe’s first fully virtualized 5G network based on the new Open RAN technology.

Thus, 1&1 O-RAN is fully functional and available throughout Germany.

Read the full press release from 1&1 - link

Read the full press release from Mavenir - link

Read the full press release from Rakuten Symphony - link

On 7th December 2023, Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) announced the establishment of Korea OTIC (Open Testing and Integration Centre) at the 2nd Techno Valley in Pangyo, with TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association), ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), telecommunication companies, manufacturers, and others.

Open RAN (Radio Access Network) is a technology that can interlink equipment from various manufacturers. Due to the nature of the technology, interoperability with third-party equipment and networks must be guaranteed for commercialization and global expansion of open RAN equipment. Until now, even if South Korea's small and medium-sized businesses develop open RAN equipment, they had to use previously established OTIC such as the U.S., Japan, and Europe to obtain international certification.

However, with the opening of Korea OTIC, small and medium-sized companies that cannot afford to build their own testing and verification infrastructure can conduct open RAN equipment conformance and interoperability tests in Korea for free and easily obtain international certification.

TTA and ETRI have established open RAN-based test and measurement equipment and test environment in Pangyo and Daejeon to open Korea OTIC from April this year and obtained final approval for the operation of the International Accreditation Laboratory in October. The three mobile carriers (SKT・KT・LGU) will also participate as a co-host for Korea OTIC.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) launched the 'Open RAN Industry Alliance (ORIA)', a public-private consultative body, and is pursuing an open RAN activation policy. The three mobile carriers announced the results of the global interoperability verification event (PlugFest).

As the organizer of PlugFest in the first half of this year, KT has established an open RAN base station that combines the wireless device (RU) of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SOLiD・FRTek) and the distributed device (DU) of Nokia. LG U+ will also continue to cooperate with Samji Electronics and Innowireless to test and verify open RAN equipment. SKT developed an indoor open RAN solution and drove the suitability test of equipment from small and medium-sized domestic manufacturers such as HFR and Samji Electronics.

TTA announced that Korea OTIC is responsible for issuing three types of international certifications for the performance of open RAN equipment itself, compatibility with other manufacturers' equipment, and operational performance within the entire network environment. By 2027, OTIC facilities and equipment will be continuously upgraded and also provide infrastructure for hosting PlugFests.

To create an open RAN ecosystem, the government will carry out "open RAN demonstration project" in earnest that creates initial demand by installing and operating open RAN equipment of domestic companies in certain spaces such as large stadiums, exhibition halls and commercial facilities starting next year. The National Information Society Agency (NIA), which is in charge of the open RAN demonstration project, announced that it will provide equipment manufacturers with experience in demonstration and telecommunication companies with opportunities to verify the open RAN system.

Hong Jin-bae, head of the Network Policy Division of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "This year is a year when efforts such as technology development and infrastructure construction to revitalize Open RAN by the Ministry of Science and ICT have paid off in earnest," adding, "The government will continue to make efforts to develop the domestic Open RAN industry and secure global leadership by expanding international cooperation such as expanding Open RAN demonstrations and fostering talent."

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Read the full article by ETNEWS (in Korean) here.

AT&T* today announced plans to lead the United States in commercial scale open radio access network (Open RAN) deployment. This industry-leading move, in collaboration with Ericsson, will further the telecommunications industry efforts and help build a more robust ecosystem of network infrastructure providers and suppliers.

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This move to an open, agile, programmable wireless network positions AT&T to quickly capitalize on the next generation of wireless technology and spectrum when it becomes available. These innovative technologies will enable lower-power, sustainable networks with higher performance to deliver enhanced user experiences. Ericsson’s open architecture will provide a foundation and springboard for developers driving innovation through open and programmable networks and bringing new suppliers into the industry.

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Read the full press release from AT&T here.

Read the full press release from Ericsson here.

Ericsson says it is now ready to take leadership in industrialising Open RAN.

Read the full announcement here.

Mavenir recently published their mapping of O-RAN Ecosystem.

See this LinkedIn post by John Baker.

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• Partners trialed non-real time RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC) technology based on O-RAN specifications
• The Non-RT RIC brings intelligence and programmability to RAN by enabling third-party applications (rApps) to manage and optimize radio resources
• Multi-vendor collaboration assessed integration complexity of the Non-RT RIC, rApps and Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework - and summarized in whitepaper.

Read the full announcement here.

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• Summit strengthens collaboration among Open Testing and Integration Centers and members of the global Open RAN ecosystem
• Summit workshop identifies the need for high quality O-RAN Certificates and Badges
• Keysight demonstrates leadership in 5G and Open RAN security, energy savings, RAN intelligent controller optimization, and non-terrestrial networks

Read the full press release here.

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