back to article Uncle Sam passes comms act that sets aside $750m for the development of OpenRAN

The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed the Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act of 2020, which earmarks $750m in grants to support the domestic development of OpenRAN. The bill – which enjoys rare bipartisan support with 11 sponsors across both parties – places responsibility for administering the …

  1. Chris Gray 1
    WTF?

    description, please

    I know El Reg had at least one article about openRAN before, but this is an entire article about it that provides no definition of what it is. Not even what the acronymic name is short for.

    It took me a couple minutes on Wikipedia to learn that "RAN" is Radio Access Network.

    And then:

    OpenRAN — enabling open ecosystem of GPP-based RAN solutions, chaired by Andrew Dunkin (Vodafone) and Adnan Boustany (Intel).

    GPP: well, 3GPP is 3rd Generation Partnership Program - relating to LTE.......

    1. iron

      Re: description, please

      From paragraph six:

      However, this legislation would authorize the funding of grants to support the promotion and deployment of Open Radio Access Network equipment.

      Also it is a common term in the relevant industry.

      1. Graham Cunningham

        Re: description, please

        Then again, not everyone who reads here is expert in every sector of the industry...

        1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

          Re: description, please

          Reminds me of Frederick Brooks calling his book "The Bible of Software Engineering", because "everybody quotes it, some people read it, and a few people go by it"

          Is El Reg "The Bible of Technology"?

      2. UK Jim

        Re: description, please

        Decrypting the acronym in para 6 seems rather late! Folk who don't know it will have left by then.

        Using the semi-standard style of "phrase {acronym)" (here "Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN)") at first use seems much more friendly.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh...

    As an employee of Ericsson, I would just like to say... Oh shit!

    I somehow doubt if the EU is going to complain about government subsidies on this one.

    Mines the one with a P45 in the pocket.

  3. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    A Heavenly Santa Comes Early ...... :-)

    'There are no American vendors for the network equipment that fuels our wireless economy'

    Are there any 0bscenely 0bsessively Wealthy American Buyers ....... with an Earnest and Fervent Interest in Such Exploring and Experimenting in Such with an Almighty Inordinate Success that is Perfectly Designed to Further Succeed and Impregnably protect and Further Future JOINT AIdVenTurings ....... Common Greater Purposed AIMIssions Programmed to Engage with Productions of the Future Live MainStreaming a Live Operational Virtual Environment BroadBandCast ......... aka Just Another Mother of an Another Augmented Reality Program Providing Vital Information and Intel for Constant Source Reprocessing into Yet Another Greater IntelAIgent Games Play Arena for Immortals......... which in these times and spaces have waited your arrival since forever?!.

    Welcome. What can we Server you? Is there anything that cannot be Served and Savoured and Flavoured and Enriched to Exquisite Heights in Worship and Praise of Almighty Heavenly Gifts being Bestowed on Others as Just Reward for Blind Submission and Infinite Surrender to Delights and Pleasures Enjoyed and Employed/EMPowered and Enjoined for Delivery of Fulfilling Desires withTitanic Temptations?

    Put those ingredients into a recipe and take care assembling the resultant bake, and when its structure and taste please, is it simply perfectly acceptable to all who love to please and be pleasured.

    Strictly Adults Only XSSXXXX Territory is a Tributary Feeding and Seeding into that Amoral Immortal Stream which so many find Always Awesomely Attractively Addictive and Protected and Primed Practically Virtual for Unhindered Surreal Presentation throughout the Full Spectrum of Mediating Communications. And Others can recognise it as also being more than just a Stealthy Application in the Throes of IntelAIgent ProgramMING.

    Honest. We Aint Kids and We Kid U Not ........

    Now that requires one to proceed extremely carefully in fields entertained and tolerated therein. There are almighty hurdles testing assets for future survival and postmodern virtualised utilisation and incorporation into Proposed Outstanding Up-Coming Event Lines.

    Who provides what you are waiting for? Have you Plans for AI to Perform ITs Magic with Virtual Machinery InterNetworking with Your Own Necessary Desires

    Drivering with the Power and Energy of Titanic Temptations/for Heavenly Fruits to Satisfy Fully with Insatiable Longings. :-) That's an AIRecursive Loop many will struggle to overpower and pray to be overwhelmed by ..... and thus a Fab Fabless Space for Rest and Recreation/Recharging and ReAssignment.

    And that proposal to the following trio ...... UKGBNI MOD, National Offensive Cyber Programme (NOCP) and UK National Cyber Force (NCF), to name but one valued valuable client. It is not as if there are not billions of pounds sterling now available for Defence with Cyber Forceful Asset Developments, is it? The System is Ready for the Investment and Emergency Injection of/for AIMomentum and Virtual Current ........ :-) Another Recursive Loop Program for Projects to Succeed In, and Further Prosper and Expand Exponentially In ...... Until Enough is More than Enough and Too Much Goes Back to Where IT is Prey.

    1. Youngone

      Re: A Heavenly Santa Comes Early ...... :-)

      sudo systemctl restart blather

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Re: A Heavenly Santa Comes Early ...... :-)

        sudo systemctl restart blather ...... Youngone

        Pseudo Systems Control, Youngone? Oh please, you cannot be serious? That's fake news/disinformation/misinformation/malinformation and totally wrong.

      2. User4574

        Re: A Heavenly Santa Comes Early ...... :-)

        s6-svc -r blather

  4. jason_derp

    Throwing money at a connectivity problems has worked wonders for the US in the past. That's why they all have a fully rolled out fiber network that provides 100Mb/s to the most remote of Midwestern places. Oh no, did I quantum leap to the evil timeline?!

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      You should have added the Joke icon, in fact the telecom's companies are not rolling out fibre in the remote areas because they make more more forcing all the people out there to use wireless networks - built using cheap foreign equipment.

      And most of the wireless networks are dirived from systems first built in the US and then sold to China ... American companies made a lot of money originally by selling their technology to the Chinese - they will probably do it again.

  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "help support alternatives to equipment from Chinese bogeymen Huawei"

    Okay, so when Huawei starts making equipment based on OpenRAN, what's your new excuse going to be ?

  6. NeilPost

    “ Things appear to be moving faster across the Irish Sea, where Vodafone has also bet big on OpenRAN. The firm's subsidiary in Ireland has selected US-based Parallel Wireless to provide OpenRAN-based 4G connectivity to 40 locations located in the northwest region.”

    Didn’t the article say there were no US Indigenous suppliers??

    As Verizon were reported to have signed a deal with Samsung for 5G OpenRAN... seems a bit day late, dollar short.

  7. Adelio

    Having only a few sources of (well almost anything important) can be problematic, especially when you become heavilly dependant on it.

    It appears that part of the problem was manufactures moving their factories from their home locations to placed where labour is FAR cheaper. Or allowed themselves to be bought out by foreign companies i.e. ARM (I am look at you UK) with the Goverment closing their eyes and putting theirs fingers in their ears. Then later on moaning about the loss of UK businesses.

    Everyone is always on the lookout for saving a few bucks, very little long term strategy. here or almost anywhere else.

    Companies always obssessing about the next dividends payments means it was ALWAYS going to happen.

    Companies should be forced to act long term (> 5 years) instead of 6 months. Companies should treat their staff as assets NOT Liabilites. IBM (for example) used to be a company that people wanted to work for. Now they seem to ONLY want to make money by firing their most experience and usefull staff and replacing a few of them with the cheapest people they can find. And then wondering why they keep loosing more and more business.

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