Leaders of the Quad — Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. — collectively pledged to foster open radio access network (RAN) technology, lending strategic geo-political support for a vital 5G network component.

In an effort to support 5G deployment and diversification, the quartet of countries agreed to promote a “diverse, resilient, and secure telecommunications ecosystem” while pointing to open RAN as one architectural vehicle to achieve that objective.

“In partnership with industry, we are advancing the deployment of secure, open, and transparent 5G and beyond-5G networks, and working with a range of partners to foster innovation and promote trustworthy vendors and approaches such as open RAN,” the leaders wrote in a joint statement following the first in-person leadership summit of the Quad.

The group specifically called out the role governments can play in creating more choices in 5G infrastructure and committed to “facilitate public-private cooperation and demonstrate in 2022 the scalability and cybersecurity of open, standards-based technology.”

This effort, according to the Quad, will also include the establishment of “sector-specific contact groups to promote an open, inclusive, private-sector-led, multi-stakeholder, and consensus-based approach.”

The Quad’s interest in advancing 5G open RAN is “a direct reflection of the increasing influence that geopolitical interests have on how governmental bodies view telecom infrastructure, standards creation, and going forward, how government involvement and influence will be more present than in the past,” Patrick Filkins, research manager at IDC, wrote in response to questions. 

“The expectation that 5G will be ever present in enterprise and public-sector environments has opened a lot of policymakers' eyes to the strategic importance that telecom networks will play in both economic output, but also as a key enabler of national, critical infrastructure,” he added. 

Open RAN, for all its promise and potential, still remains young and largely unproven at scale. Because it’s viewed as a way to create greater competition in the global RAN market, many politicians and regulators have clamped on to open RAN as an alternative to equipment from Chinese vendors. 

Strand Consult CEO John Strand isn’t convinced open RAN can replace traditional network frameworks and says Chinese vendors’ participation and influence in open RAN communities negates the technology as an alternative to Chinese equipment.

“While we applaud the idea of wanting to counter China, many of these policymakers know little to nothing about telecommunications, and moreover, they have bought the open RAN policy pitch hook, line, and sinker,” Strand wrote in an email. 

“They have a naive view that open RAN is an alternative to Huawei and ZTE, and are so blinded by the concept that they overlooked 44 Chinese companies in the O-RAN Alliance,” he added. The largest and most influential group developing open RAN specifications saw these issues spilled out into public view earlier this month.

The Quad’s open RAN goals also overlap with broader initiatives involving economic policy, intelligence, and national security initiatives, Filkins explained. “As policymakers are clearly prioritizing digital infrastructure, including telecom, as a strategic national interest, it would appear that many feel they have to present an alternative environment, which does exclude certain countries.”

Technological innovation in mobile network infrastructure could also stimulate each nation’s economy and present opportunities for domestic vendors to keep pace with today’s global leaders, according to Ed Gubbins, principal analyst at GlobalData. 

“Having greater choice in choosing RAN suppliers could also make it easier for mobile operators to avoid relying too much on equipment vendors in China, which could bolster each nation's independence from China from a geopolitical and national-security standpoint,” he added.

This intertwining of geopolitics and technology appears without fail in every conversation about open RAN. The Quad indirectly recognized Chinese vendors’ influence in the O-RAN Alliance, according to Strand, by announcing plans to coordinate open RAN development efforts with the Open RAN Policy Coalition, an advocacy group that lobbies for government policies supporting the technology. 

Open RAN development remains largely under the purview of groups of like-minded companies with some efforts in conflict and overlapping. Other technically minded groups such as the O-RAN Alliance, the Facebook-led Telecom Infra Project, and the Open Networking Foundation, focus on specifications. 

On the standardization front, the four countries also pledged to cooperate in multilateral organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 

“An effort like this is a way to create a pipeline to eventually push open RAN tech development into a global standards body, such as the ITU. Doing so is a potential way to exert additional influence on the eventual, global standards, which is generally how the telecom space functions to ensure interoperability on a global basis,” Filkins said.

While cross-body relationships already exist in the open RAN space, a multi-government push could strengthen those efforts, Gubbins said. However, he added, “any changes to them are most likely to come more directly from the most influential players among the relevant stakeholders, including major operators and vendors.”

Therein lies the problem and ultimate outcome for open RAN, according to Strand, noting that Rakuten Mobile remains the only operator to deploy 5G open RAN commercially. At least 176 operators have deployed 5G globally to date.  

“Open RAN is not good enough yet and suppliers are not ready to deliver the products that operators demand today,” Strand concludes. “The less people know about Open RAN, the more enthusiastic they are. The more one learns about telecommunications technology and its complexity, the less enthusiastic one becomes about proffered silver bullet solutions like Open RAN."