The current state of Open RAN in North America

AT&T (United States)

AT&T has commercially deployed an Open RAN-based 5G network at a few sites in Dallas in Aug 2020 with Ericsson and Samsung. AT&T has also conducted several O-RAN trials to demonstrate a mmWave 5G gNB and open front haul leveraging developments with CommScope and Intel. They are expected to incorporate O-RAN-compliant network equipment in their network from 2022 and maintain the same level of high performance.

AT&T believes that the industry will gradually introduce Open RAN into existing networks, and some deployments may continue to use existing traditional network infrastructure.

Dish Network (United States)

The dish network is building the cloud-native, Open RAN technology-based 5G broadband network that would comply with its O-RAN specifications. They tested a fully virtualized standalone 5G core using the industry’s first O-RAN compliant FDD radio by MTI, along with Nokia and Mavenir in Wyoming in Dec 2020.  The key vendors part of the Dish 5G network ecosystem includes Altiostar, Mavenir, Fujitsu, Intel, Qualcomm, Nokia, VMware, Ciena Blue Planet, Matrixx, Hansen Technologies, DigitalRoute, and MTI. DISH will use AWS Outposts and AWS Local Zones to build its 5G Open RAN network in the cloud.

The dish is a strong proponent of Open RAN.

Inland Cellular (United States)

Inland Cellular deployed TIP OpenRAN based solution for commercially launching 4G services and laid the foundation for future OpenRAN based 5G services. ExteNet Systems, Parallel Wireless, Dell EMC, and Intel are the key vendors in their 4G Open RAN deployment. Inland Cellular opted for Open RAN for price and features. It helps them drop each cell cost by about 40%.

OptimERA Cellular (United States)

OptimERA, a telecommunication provider in Alaska, is working on Open RAN-based LTE services with Parallel wireless to provide broadband services to consumers and businesses.

Verizon Cellular (United States)

Verizon believes that operators should decide for themselves depending on the circumstances whether Open RAN or traditional proprietary network is the right choice. They have mentioned to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as part of the agency’s inquiry into open RAN that much work needs to be done from a standards perspective. There are adoption challenges, specifically for existing networks (compared to greenfield deployment). Verizon plans to use Open RAN equipment to construct a 5G network in its mmWave and C-band spectrum once its existing vendors – Ericsson, Samsung, and Nokia start supplying open RAN compliant equipment later this year. Early this year, Verizon deployed 5G vRAN leveraging Samsung, Intel, HPE, and Wind River.

T-Mobile Cellular (United States)

T-Mobile currently does not have any plans to deploy Open RAN technology.

The current state of Open RAN in South America

Internet Para Todos (IPT) (Peru)

Internet Para Todos (IPT), a wholesale operator in Peru owned by Telefonica, Facebook, and Latin American banks IDB Invest and CAF Bank, launched commercial 4G mobile broadband based on TIP OpenRAN architecture based in May 2019. IpT will offer wholesale connectivity access on the revenue share model to mobile operators for delivering communication services to rural communities. Parallel Wireless and Altiostar are the key OpenRAN vendors in this deployment.

Millicom Tigo (Columbia)

Millicom plans to deploy 4G services in rural parts of Columbia via O-RAN compliant technology via Parallel Wireless. The first phase of deployment will begin early 2022, followed by new rollouts over a 4-year period. Parallel Wireless will also be a key system integrator, bringing together ecosystem partners for hardware, software, RIC, orchestration, and applications.

Telefonica (Brazil)

Telefonica Vivo conducted Open RAN technology-based trials for 4G and 5G in Brazil, with Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, Altiostar, Gigatera Communications, Supermicro, Intel, and Xilinx. They are also validating AWS outposts as infrastructure options. This is part of Telefonica’s wider strategy to conduct O-RAN trials across its core markets of Germany, Spain, the UK, and Brazil.

Movistar (Argentina)

Movistar, the Telefonica brand, is conducting Open RAN proof-of-concept in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Altiostar, RedHat, Quanta, Gigatera, and Kontron are key vendors in this Open RAN proof-of-concept. IBM is the system integrator responsible for end-to-end deployment & integration of components from the mentioned vendors for this Open RAN trial.