Meta’s Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has helped facilitate 35 trials and deployments of open radio access network (RAN) technology among 29 different operators across 20 countries.

The initiative that started in early 2016 is one of many open source communities striving to open and disaggregate network infrastructure, interfaces, and equipment that power wireless networks. 

The group last year reorganized a pair of projects focusing on open RAN into a more comprehensive effort simply titled “OpenRAN Project Group” with multiple subgroups. In 2021, TIP added 42 open RAN products from 16 technology suppliers to its marketplace, including radio units (RU), distributed units (DU), central units (CU), indoor small cells, and outdoor macro equipment.

Those products and technologies come from Altiostar, Baicells, Comba Network, Dell Technologies, Fujitsu, Mavenir, MTI Mobile, NEC, NTS Technology, Parallel Wireless, QCT, Silicom, Super Micro Computer, Tecore, Wind River, and ZT Systems.

TIP also appointed Airtel and Orange to serve as co-chairs of the open RAN group with Vodafone and T-Mobile US.

“The OpenRAN Project Group has accelerated its pace on its journey to productization, bringing the ecosystem together to take a holistic approach toward building next-generation RAN that offers greater choice, innovation, and improved economics to mobile network operators,” TIP Executive Director Attilio Zani said in a statement.

All six of the open RAN subgroups are currently developing the second wave of roadmaps and requirement documents, targeting a series of open RAN technical priorities laid out and agreed to earlier this year by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, TIM, and Vodafone, according to Zani.

Technical specs for the RU, DU, CU, RAN Intelligence and Automation, orchestration and lifecycle management automation will be published by the end of this month, he added. 

Early operator trials of TIP’s open RAN specs to date include: BT, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Dish Network, Orange, Rakuten, Vodacom, Vodafone, Telefónica, Etisalat, Telkomsel, XL Axiata, TIM, Telecom Egypt, Celcom, MTS, Axiata Dialog, Turk Telecom, and others, according to the organization.

TIP members opened five new community labs this year, bringing the total footprint to 17 across the U.S., South America, Western Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. 

Zani pointed to recent government funding initiatives, operator investment commitments, and political support as evidence of growing momentum for open RAN architecture. “On the policy front, we are seeing how policymakers and regulators increasingly appreciate the role open RAN can play in fostering innovation and ensuring high-quality connectivity for their communities,” he wrote. 

Meanwhile, TIP highlighted advancements in other projects, including more than 40 trials and deployments of its Open Optical and Packet Transport specifications among 30 operators across 24 countries. The OpenWiFi initiative that got underway in May 2021 has resulted in three deployments and the framework has been included in 24 different access point products to date, according to TIP.

Finally, TIP announced the formation of the Fixed Broadband Project Group that will be co-chaired by Vodafone and Telefónica, and a relaunch of the Non Terrestrial Connectivity Solutions Project Group co-chaired by SES Networks and Inmarsat.