Echostar Launches New Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID)

Satellite communications service provider EchoStar Corp. has launched a new facility at its Cheyenne, Wyo.-based data center where vendors can test out their Open RAN technologies on the company’s live commercial-grade, cloud-native network.

Open RAN (Open Radio Access Network) architecture is a nonproprietary version of the radio access network that allows interoperability between wireless network equipment made by different equipment vendors.

The development of Open RAN network technologies has been gaining in popularity in recent years and has drawn significant funding from the Federal government to support its development.

EchoStar said in a July 15 release that its new Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) testing and evaluation lab in Cheyenne was created with support from a $50 million grant from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund that is being run by the National Telecommunications and information Administration (NTIA).

Creation of the fund was approved by Congress as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, with the aim of moving the U.S. and other nations away from reliance on Chinese companies that provide wireless 5G networking technologies.

In February of this year, the NTIA awarded its awarded its final grant totaling $42 million from the fund’s first Notice of Funding Opportunity – boosting the funding total provided to $140 million. NTIA said the first funding opportunity gathered in more than 125 applications totaling nearly $1.4 billion to support testing and research and development (R&D) activities related to open and interoperable wireless networks.

“The Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) is now open for business,” declared EchoStar co-founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen.

“ORCID represents a significant milestone in both EchoStar and the U.S.’s journey to drive and lead the adoption of open and interoperable radio access networks,” Ergen said. “We look forward to the groundbreaking advancements expected to emerge from this initiative.”

EchoStar said the ORCID facility “provides trusted participants in the U.S. and around the world an opportunity to contribute to the development, deployment, and adoption of open and interoperable standards-based radio access networks.”

The facility, the company said, provides a “living laboratory” that includes a “real field test setup” that aims to “help drive the O-RAN ecosystem from the lab to commercial deployment.”

EchoStar acts as the manager of the ORCID consortium, whose tech partners include Fujitsu, Mavenir, and VMware by Broadcom. With help from those partners, EchoStar said it has validated “O-RAN technology at scale across the country, building an O-RAN 5G network that provides connectivity to more than 240 million Americans nationwide.”

ORCID is inviting vendors to use the facility by applying through its web portal at orcid.us/.

“We encourage vendors interested in advancing the future of Open RAN technology to reach out and see how to participate in ORCID,” said Ravinder Jarral, who is vice president of 5G Wireless Partner Engagement and Delivery and head of the ORCID program at EchoStar. “By partnering with ORCID, vendors can achieve substantial cost savings, faster time-to-market, improved quality of service, and rigorous validation for their O-RAN solutions,” Jarral said.