WASHINGTON and BONN, Germany, Aug. 1, 2024 -- ATIS and the O-RAN ALLIANCE today announced the joint signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that enables the transposition of O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications to ATIS standards.

The MoU establishes a joint process to identify O-RAN specifications for adoption by ATIS. This transposition is a major step toward advancing the adoption of Open RAN in North America, by giving O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications the benefit of recognition by ATIS, an accredited standards body with broad membership from North American industry. It furthers both organizations' mutual objectives to advance the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and global standards-compliant mobile networks. The agreement announced today builds on an earlier MoU between the parties that addressed cooperation on Open Radio Access Network (RAN) issues, including Open RAN security and stakeholder requirements for Open RAN. It emphasizes ATIS's commitment to creating innovative standards for mobile networks that leverage the latest technical and architectural advances.

"ATIS members both from industry and government sectors are highly aligned on the importance of Open RAN in creating an ecosystem of trusted suppliers that can deliver capable and cost-effective mobile network platforms," said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. "The MoU with O-RAN ALLIANCE gives the combined weight of both organizations to a common technical basis for interoperability in the Open RAN market. It complements the ATIS work on the Open RAN Minimum Viable Profile to create comprehensive and recognized Open RAN standards and best practices for the North American market."

"O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications set the global foundation for open, intelligent, virtualized and interoperable Radio Access Networks, building on common RAN standards," said Abdurazak Mudesir, Chair of the Board of O-RAN ALLIANCE and Group CTO, Deutsche Telekom. "O-RAN ALLIANCE welcomes ATIS's transposition of O-RAN specifications to ATIS standards. The MoU ensures technical alignment and supports mutual efforts to enable truly open RAN ecosystem. North America comes as another region adopting O-RAN specifications and we remain open to similar arrangements with standards authorities in other regions."

About ATIS

As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies to advance the industry's business priorities. Our Next G Alliance is building the foundation for North American leadership in 6G and beyond. ATIS' 165 member companies are also currently working to address 5G, illegal robocall mitigation, quantum computing, artificial intelligence-enabled networks, distributed ledger/blockchain technology, cybersecurity, IoT, emergency services, quality of service, billing support, operations and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open-source solutions and interoperability testing.

ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit www.atis.org. Follow ATIS on X and on LinkedIn.

About O-RAN ALLIANCE

The O-RAN ALLIANCE is a worldwide community of more than 300 mobile operators, vendors, and research & academic institutions operating in the Radio Access Network (RAN) industry. As the RAN is an essential part of any mobile network, the O-RAN ALLIANCE's mission is to re-shape the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks. The new O-RAN specifications enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation to improve user experience. O-RAN based mobile networks at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by the mobile operators. To achieve this, the O-RAN ALLIANCE publishes new RAN specifications, releases open software for the RAN, and supports its members in integration and testing of their implementations.

For more information, please visit www.o-ran.org.

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