Blog

The security challenges created by shifting to a disaggregated or “open” environment are a common issue raised about Open RAN. In April 2021, the Open RAN Policy Coalition released a 4-page paper, “Open RAN Security in 5G,” which outlines why Open RAN is not less secure than traditional RAN and can in fact bring security advantages. 

The reasons for this are two-fold: First, new capabilities and advantages enabled by 5G will improve security for traditional and Open RAN architectures.  Enterprise-grade security deployed in 5G can bring key advantages to meet security challenges like malware, botnets, and other forms of attacks that are potential risks regardless of architecture.  All implementations of 5G will benefit from these enhancements. These include the ability to secure the technology and application stack by securing all layers (signaling, applications, management, and data), all interfaces, … Read More

The Open RAN Policy Coalition is excited to participate in this year’s 5G World hybrid event. On September 21, our Executive Director Diane Rinaldo will interview P. Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer for Vodafone Idea, about Open RAN opportunities and deployments in India.

In their interview, they’ll discuss actions needed for the advancement of disaggregated network architectures, the benefits of a more diverse 5G ecosystem, and the steps that governments and policymakers can take to break down barriers to deployment and ensure that Open RAN technologies continue to develop. Join the event to hear their talk about best practices for Open RAN in the region; more details are available here.

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Today, the Open RAN Policy Coalition released a new issue brief on Open RAN and Energy Efficiency.

In the paper, we note that opening interfaces in the RAN will increase flexibility, which enables rapid rollout of efficiency measures across the RAN supply chain. Understanding the impact on power usage in particular is critical for both cost savings and sustainability, as a major part of energy consumption in mobile networks stems from the RAN.

Compared with traditional RAN, Open RAN’s software-centric approach can accelerate the shift of compute resources to large data centers, leveraging advances in data center power optimization. By running as much software as possible in the cloud, Open RAN networks can take advantage of the economies of scale inherent to large data centers. Total computations performed in data centers have increased by 550% since 2010, while total power … Read More

Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. are home to 24% of the world’s population, 35% of the world’s GDP, and many of the world’s leading technology and telecoms companies. The Quad governments have emphasized the importance of secure and trusted network infrastructure, and the need for greater vendor diversity across the telecoms ecosystem, objectives that Open RAN can help deliver.

Open RAN has been deployed in 35 countries on a pilot or commercial basis already, including in Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. To support the significant investment that the private sector has already made in Open RAN, governments have a critical role in creating an enabling environment to further support its development and adoption, fostering a vibrant ecosystem of vendors.

The Quad Open RAN Forum will bring together government and industry leaders for the first time to discuss existing … Read More

On May 28, the Open RAN Policy Coalition filed reply comments in the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry on Promoting the Deployment of 5G Open Radio Access Networks.

 Initial comments in this landmark proceeding provide a robust foundational record regarding the growing Open RAN market, show widespread consensus about the potential public benefits Open RAN can produce, and coalescence around several key steps the Commission and other policymakers can take to support these outcomes.

Commenters also express consensus that policies supporting industry innovation and carrier choice – not government mandates or legal preferences – will enable the market to realize the benefits of Open RAN. Commenters describe active and diverse engagement in industry organizations that are driving standardization, testing, and other real-world advancement toward open and interoperable interfaces in the RAN.

Our letter provides a distillation of the record on these … Read More

On May 5, 2020, the Open RAN Policy Coalition launched with a goal of educating global policymakers on the “who, what and why” of open radio access networks—Open RAN.

Our 60 global member companies were brought together by a single unifying principle: that opening the interfaces in the RAN will allow mobile networks to be deployed with a more modular design, and without being dependent upon a single vendor. We believe that this approach will lower barriers to entry for new innovators, increasing competition and vendor choice.

In order to promote this technological evolution and accelerate a stable, sustainable, and successful transition to 5G and beyond, the Coalition and its members have worked over the last year to promote initiatives and policy priorities that:

• Support new and existing technology suppliers, as well as small and large network operators, offering open

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The Open RAN Policy Coalition filed comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on Promoting the Deployment of 5G Open Radio Access Networks.

Our comments note that “the communications companies that serve markets in the United States and its partners have reached an inflection point in the development and deployment of Open RAN. In short, the commercial communications ecosystem is rapidly developing and deploying Open RAN, thereby advancing the national interests of the United States and its partners.”

We also detail Open RAN offerings that Coalition members have publicly announced as either presently available on the market or coming to market within the next 12-to-24 months, as well as the significant public interest benefits of Open RAN solutions, namely in four categories:

• Driving increased competition, innovation and network vendor diversity;
• Providing technological improvements that

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