New Department of Commerce Investment will
Leverage DISH's Wireless Leadership to Advance Open RAN
Innovation
NTIA Officials to Tour a DISH 5G Open RAN Cell
Site in Las Vegas Today
LITTLETON, Colo., Jan. 10,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of
EchoStar, was awarded a historic $50
million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
to establish the Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment
(ORCID). ORCID will allow participants to test and validate their
hardware and software solutions (RU, DU and CU) against a complete
commercial-grade Open RAN network deployed by DISH.
"The Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) will
serve a critical role in strengthening the global Open RAN
ecosystem and building the next generation of wireless networks,"
said Charlie Ergen,
co-founder and chairman, EchoStar. "By leveraging DISH's experience
deploying the world's first standalone Open RAN 5G network, ORCID
will be uniquely positioned to test and evaluate Open RAN
interoperability, performance and security from domestic and
international vendors. We appreciate NTIA's recognition of DISH and
ORCID's role in driving Open RAN innovation and the
Administration's ongoing commitment to U.S. leadership in wireless
connectivity."
To date, this grant represents NTIA's largest award under the
Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund).
ORCID will be housed in DISH's secure Cheyenne, Wyoming campus and will be supported
by consortium partners Fujitsu, Mavenir and VMware by Broadcom and
technology partners Analog Devices, ARM, Cisco, Dell Technologies,
Intel, JMA Wireless, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Samsung.
NTIA Administrator Alan
Davidson and Innovation Fund
Director Amanda
Toman will join EchoStar Co-Founder and
Chairman Charlie Ergen,
EchoStar CEO Hamid
Akhavan, EVP and Chief Network Officer Marc
Rouanne and other stakeholders to announce the grant and
tour a DISH 5G Open RAN cell site later today in Las Vegas.
During this event, DISH will outline ORCID's unique advantages,
including that it will leverage DISH's experience as the only
operator in the United States to
commercially deploy a standalone Open RAN 5G network. DISH and its
industry partners have validated Open RAN technology at scale
across the country; today DISH's network covers over 246 million
Americans nationwide.
At ORCID, participants will be able to test and evaluate
individual or multiple network elements to ensure Open RAN
interoperability, performance and security, and contribute to the
development, deployment and adoption of open and interoperable
standards-based radio access networks. ORCID's "living laboratory"
will drive the Open RAN ecosystem — from lab testing to commercial
deployment.
Below are highlights of ORCID:
- ORCID will combine both lab and field testing and evaluation
activities. ORCID will be able to test elements brought by any
qualified vendor against DISH's live, complete and commercial-grade
Open RAN stack.
- ORCID will use DISH's spectrum holdings, a combination of low-,
mid- and high-band frequencies, enabling field testing and
evaluation.
- ORCID will evaluate Open RAN elements through mixing and
matching with those of other vendors, rather than validating a
single vendor's stack. DISH's experience in a multi-vendor
environment will give ORCID unique insights about the integration
of Open RAN into brownfield networks.
- ORCID's multi-tenant lab and field testing will occur in DISH's
secure Cheyenne, Wyoming facility,
which is already compliant with stringent security protocols in
light of its satellite functions.
About DISH Wireless
DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), is changing the way the world
communicates with the Boost Wireless Network. In 2020, the company
became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition
of Boost Mobile. The company continues to innovate in wireless,
building the nation's first virtualized, Open RAN 5G broadband
network, and is inclusive of the Boost Infinite, Boost
Mobile and Gen Mobile wireless brands.
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SOURCE DISH Network Corporation