India and US Develop Open RAN Roadmap

The Indian Ministry of Communications recently stated in a statement that the Indian government has developed an accelerated roadmap for the US India Open RAN with the United States.
“This milestone agreement promotes the interoperability and large-scale deployment of OpenRAN products. Both parties agree to work together in the next generation of communication technology, marking an important step forward in global technological progress.”
Indian Telecommunications Minister Niraj? During Mittal’s recent visit to the United States, he met with the Deputy National Security Advisor, An? Newberg met and developed and released a roadmap.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adriana Watson wrote on social media, “Yesterday, the United States and India took a crucial step in accelerating the development and deployment of secure telecommunications networks within iCET. We ultimately finalized the open RAN acceleration roadmap of the US India Industrial Task Force to drive innovation and competition in the telecommunications industry.”

Although India’s DoT has not shared a roadmap, it is fair to say that the adoption of open RAN in India is slow. Although service providers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jie have conducted some experiments, the technology is clearly absent from the 5G protocol announced in 2022.
Open RAN is one of the key areas of focus for the US government, which invested $1.5 billion last year to develop this technology. Some open RAN suppliers, including Mavenir and Parallel Wireless, are headquartered in the United States. Last year, in a landmark transaction, AT&T announced that it would spend $14 billion over the next five years to adopt open RAN technology.
Last year, India’s Bharat 6G Alliance and the United States’ NextG Alliance (part of the Telecommunications Industry Solutions Alliance) signed an agreement to collaborate in open RAN and 5G and 6G research areas. The White House stated in a joint statement, “Prior to on-site deployment, a US Open RAN manufacturer will conduct a 5G Open RAN pilot at a leading Indian telecommunications operator.”
Now, the US India OpenRAN acceleration roadmap seems to be another effort to encourage Indian telecommunications companies to adopt and deploy this technology. Recently, Sanjay Bakaya, the head of Mavenir India, stated in an interview with an Indian publication that open RAN deployment may accelerate in India by 2024.
However, the deployment of 5G in the country has been more or less completed, and Jio recently announced coverage throughout India. Airtel may achieve this goal before March this year. Therefore, this year’s open RAN deployment may be at most incremental.
The Indian telecommunications company is unwilling to deploy this technology because people believe it is not yet mature. Meanwhile, AT&T’s recent transactions may change this situation, which could incentivize Indian telecommunications companies to deploy this technology.