US Listing Chinese Firms Spooks O-RAN Alliance Members
Two members of an open radio access network alliance have halted activities over concerns about possible ramifications of the U.S. decision to place three Chinese alliance members on the Commerce Department's Entity List. Ericsson and Nokia responded that they remain committed to the project. Resolving the issue could require the O-RAN Alliance to throw out its Chinese members or receive a U.S exception.
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The alliance, launched in 2018, includes network operators, vendors and research and academic institutions. In August, Nokia said it stopped such work because of the U.S. decision to place alliance members Kindroid, Pythium and Inspur on the Entity List because of their roles in Chinese military modernization and development of weapons of mass destruction, consultant John Strand wrote.
Nokia's commitment to O-RAN and the alliance, "of which we were the first major vendor to join, remains strong," emailed a Nokia spokesperson. Nokia is "simply pausing its technical activity with the Alliance as some participants have been added to the US entities list and it is prudent for us to allow the Alliance time to analyze and come to a resolution." Ericsson is "committed to seeing the work with O-RAN Alliance continue and is supporting activities to help resolve the situation," a spokeswoman emailed. The coalition didn't comment Friday.
Telecom software firm Mavenir said it's confident companies worldwide will continue to contribute to global standards organizations like this one. Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli said that "we understand that policymakers are in the process of clarifying that American suppliers can and should keep contributing to the Alliance, 3GPP and other standards and similar bodies."
Being placed on the Entity List doesn't necessarily mean companies must stop contributing jointly to industry standards, Telecoms.com analyst Wei Shi wrote. After Huawei and its non-U.S. affiliates were listed, the Commerce Department issued a temporary general license to let American companies continue to engage with Huawei for the "necessary" development of 5G standards and as part of a duly recognized international standards body (see 2006160035 and 2005150058).