The technology has drawn interest from the U.S. government because it would allow networks to be made with offerings from American firms such as Dell, Microsoft Corp and others rather solely from industry-specific providers such as Nokia or China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.
· Reuters October 14, 2021, 07:30 IST By Stephen Nellis
Dell Technologies Chief Michael Dell said on Wednesday he sees an
opportunity to play a key role in the global rollout of 5G networks with new technology that makes specialized equipment
unnecessary.
The shift toward Open Radio
Access Network (O-RAN)
lets telecommunications carriers use software to run network functions on
standardized computing hardware.
The technology has drawn interest from the U.S.
government because it would allow networks to be made with offerings from
American firms such as Dell, Microsoft Corp and others rather solely from
industry-specific providers such as Nokia or
China's Huawei Technologies
Co Ltd.
·
In an interview,
Dell said interest from the administration of former President Donald Trump in
positioning the technology as a Western-led counterweight to Huawei has
"fully carried over" to President Joe Biden's
administration.
"It's been a completely bipartisan thing,"
Dell said.
Dell makes the computing hardware that goes into
the new style of networks and has already secured deals to help DISH Network
Corp in the United States and Vodafone and Orange in Europe build 5G networks with the technology. On Wednesday, Dell
Technologies announced software to help carriers manage the computers used in
the new networks, targeting release in November.
But most of the new O-RAN networks in Europe
remain testbeds, and DISH is a 5G upstart building a network from scratch
rather than an established player. Some telecommunications analysts believe the
new open technology will not be dominant for at least another generation of
networks.
Dell wants to speed up the shift by testing and
hardening much of the new technology for broader use.
"There's an appetite in many circles for a Western champion that brings all of this together at scale," Dell said, noting that his company has also had talks with governments in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia as well as Japan and Western Europe.
