NTIA’s $1 Billion Trump Card For Open RAN

The US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is leaving the incoming Trump administration almost $1 Billion to support the growth of Open RAN in the US. The $1.5 Billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund which was announced in 2022 as part of the CHIPS and Science Act, is being administered in three rounds with the second round handing the last of its grants only this week. The final round of funding, which is worth $940 million, will be awarded by the incoming Trump administration.

Set up to help Open RAN gain wider market adoption, the fund is being used to spur innovation, competition, and supply chain resilience in the US. To achieve these goals, each round has had its own specific yet complimentary focus.

The first round, worth $140 million dollars, set aside grants for testing and evaluation (T&E), and research and development (R&D) into testing methods. T&E (Or T&V for validation depending on who you speak to) is a critical first step for any Open RAN product given the complexities involved in multi-vendor networks. Creating these new labs removes a layer of complexity for new entrants and smaller players who couldn’t otherwise carry out this work and provide MNOs with assurances regarding the network readiness of new products. Notable grant recipients included VIAVI’s VALOR Lab-As-A-Service and Boost Mobile’s Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID). 

The current, second round of funding, is worth a total of $420 million. Its focus has been to support Open Radio Unit (O-RU) commercialisation and innovation, particularly in the US. Successful projects had to produce commercially viable products in partnership with a Mobile Network Operator (MNO). Presumably, the output of this work will benefit from the results of the first round of funding which will provide the T&E these new products will need. 

Seven projects received grants worth $273 million in December last year, focused on accelerating commercialisation through the development of open RU products that meet carrier needs and are ready for commercial trials. JMA Wireless, Abside Networks, Battelle Memorial Institute, Microelectronics Technology, Eridan Communications, Solid Gear, and Nokia of America each received grants from $27 million to just shy of $48 million for their respective projects.

The latest set of grants went to nine projects focused on O-RU Innovation, specifically on improving the overall performance and capabilities of open RUs through targeted research and development. Airspan Networks have grabbed the lion’s share of this round with almost $43 million received to build a platform to maximise power efficiency. 

Other recipients include: 

• Analog Devices who received $9,979,097 to integrate their Rakino Baseline Chip with multiple interface variants 
• DeepSig received $9,998,638 to fill a critical gap in the application of AI/ML techniques which will improve the ability of using Open Radio Units for spectrum sensing to support future spectrum sharing capabilities. 
• EpiSys Science has  $8,168,674 to develop, demonstrate and evaluate the performance of a software defined radio system that integrates 3GPP Sidelink with a 7.2b Open RAN split that supports Uplink Performance Improvement splits.
• New York University will use their $9,960,960 grant to advance the rapid growth and deployment of massive multiple input, multiple output Open Radio Units into current and future networks. 
• Otava got $9,974,504 to accelerate the deployment of commercial radios for the important frequency range from 7.125 GHz to 24.25 GHz. 
• Rampart Communications, who will partner with Virginia Tech, receive $9,971,458 to create a novel 6G physical layer technology for mobile wireless network providers to leverage. 
• SecureG has $6,468,420 to develop a high-fidelity Proof of Concept that demonstrates the feasibility and measurable impacts of Public Key Infrastructure on Open Radio Unit security compliance and interoperability. 
• Skylark Wireless got $10,118,112 to integrate and scale a wholly new Software-Defined Radio transceiver architecture within a 5G new radio massive multiple input, multiple output system prototype. 

Commenting on the latest awards, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said “Our awards today are tackling a major wireless network expense head-on with support to bring more open radio units to market,” he added that “These projects will shore up the hardware supply chain and create new opportunities for companies from the U.S. and its allies along the way.”

Some of those opportunities are expected to be realised through the work carried out as a result of the final round of funding which aims to identify and validate new Open RAN enabled revenue streams, while reducing the cost and complexity of multi-vendor integration. The round is expected to focus heavily on the RIC and Integration Automation Solutions.

And with the deadline for applications to the third round of funding set to close on 17th March 2025, the incoming Trump administration will have an early opportunity to set the tone of its vision for Open RAN. It might also be a chance to assess whether the close ties his presidential campaign developed with certain parts of the tech community, especially some of the leading VCs heavily invested in the software space, will yield positive results for Open RAN in the US.