The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded $42 million to fund the Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialization for Open RAN Deployments (ACCoRD) project.
ACCoRD is a project by a consortium of U.S. carriers, foreign carriers, universities and equipment suppliers that will operate a testing, evaluation and R&D center in the Dallas Technology Corridor and a satellite facility in the Washington, D.C area. The new center will focus testing on network performance, interoperability, security, and facilitate research into new testing methods.
Leadership of ACCoRD Project:
- AT&T and Verizon.
Unfunded Founding Members:
- NTT DOCOMO (Japan)
- Reliance Jio (India).
Support for Dallas-area Center:
- The University of Texas at Dallas.
Neutral Laboratory Support:
- Virginia Tech
- Northeastern University
- Iowa State University
- Rutgers University.
Suppliers for ACCoRD:
- Microsoft, Nokia, Radisys, Airspan, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Rakuten, Samsung, Mavenir, VMWare, RedHat, Wind River, Ciena, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Amdocs, Keysight, VIAVI. “Spurring innovation and competition in wireless technologies is vital to U.S. economic and national security,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
- “This $42 million award marks $140 million in investments through the Wireless Innovation Fund, underscoring the impact of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda in action. These grants are supporting facilities and advancing research that will unlock new opportunities for America to lead in the global telecommunications market, strengthen our supply chains and drive down costs.”