What is ORAN, and why does it matter?

What if we told you there’s a silver bullet that could make mobile networks safer, more efficient, and more competitive?

While far from a perfect solution, many telecom companies, experts, and government officials have been throwing their weight behind the concept of open radio access networks (ORAN), which hold the promise of addressing a host of issues that currently plague the industry.

With companies from AT&T to Dish Wireless embracing the technology, it’s worth understanding what it entails and where it’s headed.

So, what is ORAN?

Let’s start with the RAN part of the equation. The radio access network connects consumer devices using mobile connections to the broader telecom ecosystem. Without this link, individual phones, laptops, and other similar devices would operate like islands unto themselves—not very practical.

Telecom networks have traditionally been closed systems supported by a single vendor, many of which are based overseas: Finland’s Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson, and South Korea’s Samsung, to name a few heavy hitters.

While that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, this black-box architecture can make it challenging to audit what’s actually in the network stack. Many experts also believe that some vendors, such as China-based Huawei and ZTE, present national security concerns to the US.

ORAN seeks to change the vertically integrated network model by ensuring that all components of the telecom infrastructure chain operate according to a common set of standards, making different vendors’ hardware essentially interchangeable. It also leans heavily on software, as opposed to hardware, which makes components easier to update remotely and doesn’t require physical reinstallation.

“Open RAN technology is something that operators have been asking for for many years. And finally, we have standards, we have the ability to actually make it happen,” Jack Nasielski, who leads ORAN standards development at Qualcomm, said. “It’s pretty exciting from that perspective: There’s a bunch of smaller companies that have been trying to get access to this market.”

Why does the “open” part matter?

In short, it can create space for smaller, newer infrastructure companies leveraging cloud-based network management tools to gain a toehold in the market. It also leaves space to integrate emerging technologies like AI to help optimize the flow of traffic and defend against network attacks.

Todd Zeiler, an AT&T VP who specializes in wireless network construction and engineering, compared the swap to the move away from more device-specific proprietary chargers toward a universal charging standard.

“Think of it as, we go now to a common USB-C charger and a USB-C interface,” he said. “We’re doing something very similar in Open RAN, where you can drive innovation across standard plugins, if you will…which allows us to drive down our cost structure, bring in innovation, and bring others into the ecosystem.”

While most of these changes are happening at the network level, everyday customers will likely experience downstream effects, according to John Kuzin, VP of spectrum policy and regulatory counsel at Qualcomm.

“By lowering the cost of deployment, carriers can lower the cost of their service that they’re providing, and use the savings to further expand and densify their networks,” he told Tech Brew. “In sum, Open RAN allows carriers to provide better service to consumers.”

Is this approach gaining traction?

Indeed. Congress began sounding the alarm over the potential dangers of certain vendors’ vertically integrated network stacks as far back as 2012, and passed legislation in 2020 to crack down on the deployment and use of network equipment deemed risky.

This has left a significant gap, and the US and international partners have been stepping up to fill it with collaboration on interoperable and secure 5G standards with an eye toward helping companies commercialize the capabilities.

Companies, too, have been embracing ORAN tech as it becomes more widely available. In December, AT&T announced a plan to funnel 70% of its traffic over Open-RAN-capable infrastructure by late 2026, with designs that include Corning, Dell, Ericsson, Fujitsu, and Intel as suppliers.

Another trailblazer, Dish Network (now a subsidiary of EchoStar), built its entire 5G network on the ORAN model following its 2020 acquisition of Boost Mobile. In January, Dish Wireless was awarded a $50 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to operate a test center that will allow vendors to try ORAN components in a real network stack.

Eben Albertyn, EVP at EchoStar and CTO of the Boost Mobile Network, said he’s particularly bullish on the security advantages that ORAN can provide, not only to the EchoStar companies, but across the industry.

“It is a sea change from old, closed, single-vendor systems that are increasingly unable to keep up with the pace of innovation,” he said in a statement shared with Tech Brew by Dish spokesperson Phillip Waller.