The United States and Japan Should Team Up on 5G
JAMES L. SCHOFF, RIKA KAMIJIMA-TSUNODA
JULY 23, 2020
COMMENTARY
The first area for collaboration leverages the private sector, as U.S. and Japanese companies are jointly promoting a promising approach involving Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) equipment. Radio Access Network (RAN) is the part of a wireless telecommunications network that connects individual devices to the core network through base stations and antennas. Traditional RAN equipment usually comes with supplier-specific software and hardware pairings so those of different vendors are not interoperable, but Open RAN allows multiple operators and vendors to share a network through an open interface.
The major Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten, for example, has recently entered into the mobile carrier business. It created a new mobile network company that assembled the first end-to-end fully virtualized network, launched entirely on the cloud for an Open RAN platform. The virtual network allows for Open RAN and requires less hardware investment. Without it, it is hard to avoid a lock-in system of company specific hardware and software. Rakuten invested in Altiostar Networks, a U.S. mobile network builder, to construct its 5G-ready virtualized RAN software. Rakuten also partnered with Mavenir, a U.S.-based, virtualized, cloud-native network software provider (designed for cloud computing) for Rakuten’s 5G voice and messaging service. In addition, U.S. broadcast satellite provider DISH Network is partnering with Japan’s Fujitsu, Altiostar, and Mavenir on its own Open RAN virtualized network.
This Open RAN model contrasts with Chinese vendors’ models, which generally seek to lock telecom carriers into using only one company’s (for example, Huawei’s) hardware and software. By promoting Open RAN, companies and countries can benefit from new opportunities to compete and partner in flexible ways, taking advantage of the best they have to offer. It can also lower the stakes of the initial decision on a 5G provider and encourage companies to be more accountable. As a result, it can dial down the geopolitical tension surrounding this technology.
As people worldwide have been hunkered down inside during the coronavirus pandemic, online activity has been increasing and the world’s digital transformation has become more important than ever. For example, average daily traffic for video chat, remote work services, streaming services, and online media has increased by double digits for many websites and services, and in some cases by 80 to 100 percent.
The pandemic has accelerated this digital transformation, and 5G is likely to be the backbone of the infrastructure that supports this shift. A global approach to developing 5G networks will be more efficient and productive than splintering the marketplace with exclusive vendor arrangements. This global approach will also limit the ability of countries to pressure others economically, because of how much sunk costs in a particular company’s equipment already exists in their networks. In this context, openness is a way to depoliticize the current competition and let it play out more like other industries do. Accomplishing this will require countries to work together at various levels. Close coordination between the United States and Japan will be a useful way to make sure that this collaboration is as productive as possible.
carnegieendowment.org/2020/07/23/...d-team-up-on-5g-pub-82354
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