In order to be able to provide an alternative to huawei‘s technology solutions, the U.S. in recent years has vigorously promoted the “Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN)” architecture based on open source and open concepts to break the reliance on Huawei equipment in the construction of 5G.
In the traditional international telecom standard network, all software and hardware are from the same supplier, so that the existing major vendors have an absolute advantage in the competition. Under the “open wireless access network” framework, operators can use software and hardware from different vendors to achieve modular network construction. Since last year, the “open wireless access network” market is growing rapidly, including Nokia, Ericsson and other major international telecommunications equipment vendors have begun to respond positively to this new framework, some of the international alliances responsible for the development of relevant industry standards and norms have also come into being.
On the other hand, however, communication industry experts note that so far, Huawei has been excluded from some alliances, but many other Chinese companies are active in them.
The O-RAN Alliance is currently the most important international organization promoting “open wireless access networks,” said John Strand, CEO of Strand Consulting, a Danish telecoms information company, which currently has 237 members, including as many as 44 Chinese companies that have joined the alliance, although the United States has 82 members.
Notably, these 44 Chinese companies play a pivotal role in controlling the development of technical specifications and the 5G open radio access network industry chain,” he said.
Information on the O-RAN Alliance’s official website shows that about a year ago, there were only 20 Chinese companies in the alliance. In addition, the co-chair of the Technical Steering Committee, which is responsible for discussing and researching technologies related to O-RAN, is Yi Zhiling from China Mobile.
In China, Strand said, there are inextricable links between companies and companies and between companies and the government, and all companies are under government control. For China, he said, Huawei is irrelevant as long as there are other companies in China that can influence the development of standards and the manufacture of equipment for “open wireless access networks. There is no question that they are representing the Chinese system, and they are certainly representing Huawei in the process,” he said, citing China Mobile as an example. The relationship between all these Chinese companies is different from the relationship between companies that we see in the Western world, and it’s important to recognize that.”
A survey by Chinese market research firm Hua An Securities last November said China is already an important link in the global industry chain for “open wireless access networks,” with suppliers of filters, connectors and a range of other equipment mainly coming from China.
High hopes for the open network
After several spin-offs and mergers of AT&T, the United States has long lost its dominant position in the global telecommunications equipment market. One of the challenges facing the U.S. in banning and dismantling Huawei equipment is the lack of alternative options for local companies. Under the “open radio access network” framework, operators can use software and common hardware from different vendors to achieve a modular hybrid network, providing a new opportunity for local companies to compete.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill in January last year calling for a major acceleration of open wireless access network development. The bill’s advocacy was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 last December. In addition, the USA Telecommunications Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year11, provides $750 million in appropriations through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to support the ramped-up deployment and use of 5G open wireless access networks across the United States. In addition to the U.S., similar bills exist in a number of other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and India.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a forum specifically on open wireless access networks last September, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in his keynote address that the U.S. wants countries to choose trustworthy 5G network providers, “not providers that are in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party.” And Ajit Pai, chairman of the committee, said the Open Wireless Access Network could be an alternative solution to Huawei’s equipment. He said the U.S. will see a diversity of suppliers and that the security keys will be in the hands of network operators, not a Chinese supplier.
In a speech Tuesday (Jan. 5) to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank, the outgoing Pai re-emphasized the importance of developing an “open wireless access network,” saying the architecture has shown great potential in the United States and other countries around the world. He urged the public and private sectors to continue to work together to promote the development and growth of this new network industry.
In May of last year, the U.S. joined with dozens of global technology and telecommunications companies to form the Open RAN Policy Coalition in order to advocate for an “open and interoperable” 5G network architecture. “The coalition’s executive director is a former national director of the U.S. Department of Energy. The coalition’s executive director is Diane Rinaldo, former acting administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and former acting assistant secretary of commerce for telecommunications and information. The Alliance’s main purpose is to promote governments to support the “open wireless access network” framework in their policies, and so far has not admitted a Chinese company.
Huawei is not the only threat
Since last year, more and more telecom operators have started to adopt the “open wireless access network” architecture to build next-generation networks, driven by the United States and other countries. After banning Huawei equipment on national security grounds, Japanese telecom equipment supplier NEC began to participate in the construction of 5G networks in the U.K. NEC began to establish an open wireless access network promotion center in the U.K. at the end of last year, using its experience in supporting “open wireless access network” commercial deployments in Japan. “NEC began establishing an Open Wireless Access Network rollout center in the UK late last year, leveraging its experience in Japan supporting commercial deployments of Open Wireless Access Networks to help telecommunications service providers roll out new architecture networks around the world.
In an email to the Voice of America, Mavenir, a Texas-based provider of “open wireless access networks,” said that under this architecture, a range of major companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Qualcomm are now involved in building 5G networks in the United States. The company’s senior vice president, Marie von Tubb, said they are already ahead of Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson in sales in the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) business, which is considered the core technology for next-generation networks.
On the other hand, however, observers point out that given the extremely complex nature of the international telecoms chain apparatus, it is difficult to completely exclude any Chinese-made products and owned technologies in practice.
Melissa K. Griffith, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said it would be more realistic to exclude suspicious Chinese-made products in some key areas and work to reduce risk in others. She said there is widespread concern about cybersecurity in the United States, but it is difficult to rely entirely on the Open Wireless Access Network architecture to avoid national security risks.
They have real fears in this area, and they are putting a lot of hope, a lot of promise in a technology standard like the Open Wireless Access Network,” she said. But the reality is that the open wireless access network will do some things and some things it won’t.”
Kirby Goldberg, a researcher at the Center for New American Security Studies, said the United States has focused too much attention on individual Chinese companies over the past few years. He said, “The problem for the U.S. is not Huawei, and it’s not TikTok. the problem for the U.S. is the broader Chinese technology chain.”
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