The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded a $47,538,987.72 Project Grant to AT&T Corp. under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant Program (CFDA 11.038). The purpose of the grant is to establish an Open RAN Testing and Evaluation Center to accelerate the development, deployment, and adoption of open, interoperable 5G radio access networks (RAN).
Key activities to be performed under this 4-year grant include: 1) Creating a consortium of U.S. mobile network operators to serve as the structure for a comprehensive program dedicated to the acceleration of Open RAN compatibility and commercialization; 2) Establishing an Open RAN testing, evaluation, and R&D center in the Dallas technology corridor and a satellite location in the Washington, D.C. area; and 3) Facilitating research into new testing methods to enhance existing approaches for validating the evolving Open RAN ecosystem. The grant will also fund subawards to universities such as the University of Texas at Dallas, Northeastern University, and Virginia Tech to integrate their lab resources into the proposed federated testing platform.