Rakuten Mobile has confirmed it will support the commercial deployment of Open radio units (RUs) developed by US-based vendors as part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) plans to advance Open RAN development.
The development of the Open RUs will be supported by the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund.
The Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund aims to support the development of Open RAN, which is tipped to promote competition in the wireless market and diversify the global supply chain.
Open RAN aims to allow providers to ‘mix and match’ solutions from multiple vendors, which is impossible with proprietary network equipment.
The Japanese carrier said it will work with RU vendors selected by NTIA’s project. These partners include Battelle Memorial Institute, Microelectronics Technology, Eridan Communications, and Airspan Networks.
Rakuten Mobile, which has built a nationwide mobile network based on Open RAN standards in its home market Japan, added that it will assist those vendors in the verification and integration processes required for the commercial deployment of their open RUs and support proof-of-concept trials in commercial networks.
The company noted that the trials will utilize Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN-compatible distributed units (DUs) and centralized units (CUs).
Rakuten has carved out a number of Open RAN partnerships in recent years. Last year, Ukrainian carrier Kyivstar signed an Open RAN network deal with Rakuten.
In 2023, Rakuten opened its Rakuten Open RAN Customer Experience Center in the UK.
Open RAN has been seen as an important priority for the US, with the NTIA announcing that up to $420 million in funding has been made available to develop Open RAN networks in May.
At the time, the NTIA said the investment will "drive commercialization and innovation in open radio units."
That particular investment followed the $42 million handed to Verizon, AT&T, plus other operators, vendors, and developers for Open RAN development earlier in the same year.
Prior to this, AT&T signed a $14 billion Open RAN contract with network vendor Ericsson.