Four prominent wireless leaders testify about open RAN at Congressional hearing

Some of the top proponents of open RAN in the US warned lawmakers that the technology remains in danger of sliding into irrelevance if trends toward fragmentation and proprietary solutions continue. John Baker, senior vice president of Ecosystem Business Development at Mavenir warned that there can be different flavors of open RAN. "Just as open RAN has been embraced by nearly all within the industry, we risk repeating history by having suppliers again lock up networks with proprietary solutions that are only partially based on O-RAN Alliance specifications." Similarly, Dish Network's Jeff Blum warned of possible open RAN fragmentation. Mavenir, Dish and others at the hearing urged lawmakers to support a handful of strategic initiatives they said could propel open RAN forward.