AT&T adds Mavenir to its roster of Open RAN suppliers

Network software specialist Mavenir will work with existing supplier Fujitsu – which appears to have been given an expanded role in AT&T's ambitious Open RAN rollout. Together, they will develop radios specifically for high-traffic areas in hopes of improving performance and coverage in busy cities.

This work will support lead supplier Ericsson, which was chosen this time last year to oversee AT&T's $14 billion Open RAN deployment. Corning, Dell, Intel and aforementioned Fujitsu were also all given supporting roles.

The new radios being worked on by Mavenir and Fujitsu will be open C-band and dual-band radios, and will be compact enough to attach to existing utility and light poles. It will even be possible to conceal them altogether, making them virtually unseen from street level and therefore limiting their visual impact.

"All open radios will be managed by Ericsson's Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) via open management interfaces," explained AT&T in a blog post penned by Rob Soni, VP of RAN technology, and Todd Zeiler, VP of wireless engineering and construction. "EIAP is Ericsson's open network management and service orchestration platform. It supports replacing the old legacy equipment and installing the new radios without missing a beat."

With a few exceptions, most telcos testing the waters with Open RAN have so far tended towards putting it to use in low-footfall areas that don't exert too much strain on the technology, exploring its potential as a means of cost-effectively extending coverage or supplementing capacity.

Work is ongoing to see whether Open RAN is as equally capable as traditional RAN when it comes to meeting operators' requirements in so-called high demand density (HDD) environments – cities and transport hubs, and so-on.

It would be an understatement to say it is taking a while for all this work to bear fruit, and in fact, a lot of telcos seem content to stick with traditional or legacy RAN.

According to a recent report from Mobile Experts, the market for Open RAN solutions is on course to fall by a massive 83% this year. The decline is being driven by the completion of large greenfield deployments by Dish in the US, Rakuten in Japan, and 1&1 in Germany, coupled with the tendency for legacy operators to use traditional RAN suppliers.

This makes AT&T something of an outlier, and the operator is banking on Open RAN technology to cut the mustard.

As previously announced, AT&T wants 70% of its 5G network traffic to be carried by open hardware by late 2026. With the majority of mobile traffic generated in densely-populated areas, it means that Open RAN needs to work well in these locations.

That deadline is already starting to loom large, given how long it is taking Open RAN to make its mark on the industry. The pressure is on Mavenir, Fujitsu and Ericsson to deliver.