Remarks of Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel at Open RAN Solutions Showcase

A few years ago I was actually the first at the Federal Communications Commission to speak about the power of opening radio access networks (Open RAN), and we’ve come a long way since then. There’s momentum building in this agency and across government. One company has already made it into the history books as the first to launch an Open RAN network—and it is winning customers every day. One nationwide provider right here in the United States has committed to building a nationwide 5G network using Open RAN by 2023. Open RAN hardware and software is now projected to reach 10 percent of the total market during the next few years. And most notably—we are no longer thinking about wireless equipment just in an end-to-end way. Instead, we are thinking about it as a more diverse and modular architecture.

Now many of you are here because you will soon take on the complex task of removing Huawei and ZTE equipment from your networks, wherever it may exist. As we strive to meet this goal, the FCC will continue to work to ensure that secure alternatives exist for carriers. We want companies cutting out high-risk hardware from their networks to have the opportunity to use a range of trusted alternatives. That means traditional end-to-end proprietary gear, but it also means newer opportunities like Open RAN. The FCC can do its best to create conditions that foster innovation and investment, but at the end of the day, we’re counting on all of you to develop and deploy these technologies. Working together, we have an opportunity to build a bigger market for more secure 5G equipment. And that will help unlock the benefits of 5G technology for everyone, everywhere.