DOCOMO to Collaborate with AT&T, Verizon and Jio for Open RAN Verifications

NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced that it will participate in Open RAN verifications in the United States as the ACCoRD (Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialization for Open RAN Deployments) project in a consortium jointly founded with AT&T Inc. (AT&T), Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon), and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (Jio). This consortium was awarded a USD 42.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) ¹ on February 12.

The consortium comprises telecom operators and US universities and suppliers include equipment vendors from the United States and abroad, and is committed to verifying multi-vendor Open RAN connectivity for further commercial deployments. Leveraging its experiences and expertise in multi-vendor interoperability since the 4G era and Open RAN deployment in 5G networks, DOCOMO will contribute to the realization of integration and interoperability between major and emerging vendors with its consortium partners.

The grant program, part of the Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund established by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 in the United States, is aimed at promoting open and interoperable solutions in the wireless communication equipment market, stimulating the ecosystem, and providing grants to activities advancing verification, adoption and deployment of such technology and equipment.

Going forward, DOCOMO will contribute to supporting operators in their adoption of Open RAN through this consortium and the company’s Open RAN service brand OREX^®. ²

1. Principal advisory body to the President of the United States on domestic and international telecommunications and information policies.
2. OREX is an Open RAN service provider launched by DOCOMO in collaboration with multiple global vendors, providing customized Open RAN solutions to address the needs of each customer.

NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s leading mobile operator with over 89 million subscriptions, is one of the world’s foremost contributors to 3G, 4G and 5G mobile network technologies. Beyond core communications services, DOCOMO is challenging new frontiers in collaboration with a growing number of entities (“+d” partners), creating exciting and convenient value-added services that change the way people live and work. Under a medium-term plan toward 2020 and beyond, DOCOMO is pioneering a leading-edge 5G network to facilitate innovative services that will amaze and inspire customers beyond their expectations.
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/

Consortium Members

Founders

• U.S. telecom operators: AT&T, Verizon
• Telecom operators outside the U.S.: DOCOMO, Jio

• Universities in the U.S.

Suppliers

Telecom equipment vendors

• RAN vendors from Japan, the U.S. and Europe
• Virtualization vendors and server vendors from the U.S., etc.

Roles

U.S. telecom operators

• Planning and managing the implementation of Open RAN verification

• Planning Open RAN verification, considering countermeasures by providing verification and integration knowledge

• Providing equipment and software, as well as verification support

• Providing the physical environment for the verification lab, and implementing verification

Activities

• Establishment of Open RAN Testing and Evaluation Center
• Exploration of migration options from existing networks to Open RAN
• Introduction of Open RAN solutions from emerging vendors into the 4G and 5G networks of major vendors
• Provision of feedback from verification activities to 3GPP and O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications, etc.