On May 5, 2020, 31 companies around the world officially established the Open-RAN Alliance, which intends to change the current communications market landscape. It is worth noting that this so-called alliance, of which 23 members belong to Lao mei, accounting for more than two-thirds of the number of alliances, including Intel, Microsoft, Google and other well-known enterprises. Therefore, many people jokingly call this Lao Mei's own alliance.
Of course, Lao Mei is not idle and busy in vain, its direct purpose is to save operator costs, and the fundamental purpose is actually to get rid of the dependence on domestic suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE.
What is Open-RAN
All along, the communication market has been relatively closed, each family eats its own meal, does not interfere with each other, and does business according to its ability. In this case, if the operator wants to build a base station, it can only find an equipment supplier to purchase a complete set of base station equipment and service solutions. As a result, which supplier has strong technology and high cost performance of equipment, which one has the advantage. This is also why after being suppressed by Lao Mei, Huawei is still able to lead the world with a market share of nearly 30%.
"Open", that is, open. The so-called Open-RAN is to open the closure and develop a unified standard, which is mainly implemented by opening the protocols and interfaces between the various subcomponents (radio, hardware and software) in the open RAN. In this way, the various products of communication equipment suppliers can communicate with each other, and the communication market has become a big pot of rice. In short, operators do not have to rely on individual suppliers and can build their networks through extensive procurement.
According to laomei's logic, this is a good thing for operators, which is conducive to optimizing choices and reducing costs. But that's unfriendly to leading suppliers like Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson, increasing competition and reducing profits. It's just that the top communication technology is in the hands of the leader, and Huawei does not participate in the formulation of technical standards, in fact, it is also a waste. Lao Mei actually understands the reasoning, and deliberately co-opted Nokia and Ericsson, just so that Open-RAN can proceed smoothly.
Threats to Huawei
The question is, as the world's number one supplier, why is Huawei excluded from this alliance?
In fact, not only Huawei, ZTE has also been excluded. As for the reason, Lao Mei has already helped us solve the puzzle. At the end of 2019, the Financial Times reported that Lao Us officials urged local telecom equipment manufacturers to work together on 5G technology to replace Huawei and ZTE equipment. Careful people will find that Open-RAN appeared shortly after the old United States co-opted allies to dismantle Huawei equipment, and its purpose was actually obvious.
Huawei also knows that Lao Mei does not have good intentions, but it also did not think that Lao Mei would be so ruthless, not only to suppress the market, but also to formulate new standards, completely excluding Huawei from the mainstream market. In September 2021, Huawei CTO Paul Scanlan made it clear that Huawei and other vendors firmly do not support any of the Open-RAN Alliance's architectures, and Paul Scanlan is also skeptical about the security of Open-RAN Alliance technology.
Civil unrest, BT CTIO questioned Open-RAN
If Lao Mei can really carry forward the Open-RAN technology, the threat to Huawei will be fatal. Because the alliance naturally stands on the side of Huawei's customers, operators. Once its technology passes, it will inevitably be supported by global operators, and Huawei's market share will not only decline, but also its overall technological leadership will be greatly weakened.
However, before Huawei's anxiety, open-RAN has already started civil unrest. As we all know, the Uk has played the role of a pawn in the dismantling of Huawei equipment. It is estimated that the UK plans to dismantle 12,000 base stations within a decade, costing US$700 million (about 4.5 billion yuan), and if all Huawei equipment is dismantled, it will cost US$2 billion (about 13 billion yuan). This is an unbearable burden for the United Kingdom under the epidemic.
Therefore, the United Kingdom found that it could not be dismantled when it was dismantled, and before that, the United Kingdom announced that the dismantling of Huawei equipment would be postponed for another six months. Who suffered the most from the british wanton demolition of Huawei equipment? Operators, of course. What is even more tragic is that operators not only have to dismantle, but also have to build, otherwise after demolition, they will return to the 2G and 3G era. Again, this is not a small amount of money. At this time, Open-RAN became their lifesaver.
One of the aims of the Open-RAN Alliance is to save costs, which is in line with the current situation in the UK. Originally " the right medicine " , the British saw that it had been redeemed. What I didn't expect was that the punch in the face came quickly. In mid-March, Howard Watson, chief technology and information officer at BT Group, suddenly said that Open-RAN has always been suspected of over-hype, and it has not seen any cost effects.
Confusingly, just during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, Watson also said that the Open-RAN plan has finally begun to be implemented, and said that the technology will be applied on small stations and neutral hosts this year. In just half a month, Watson performed a "face change" to the world.
British 5G construction, the real sale of gold caves
Summarizing the history of network construction in the United Kingdom in recent years, I have to say that it is full of sadness. First of all, it plans to cooperate with Huawei to build 5G, which is expected to win 5G orders at low cost. As a result, halfway out of the old United States, Huawei was abandoned, the original 5G plan was in vain, and will also lose 700 million US dollars in the short term to dismantle the base station, dismantle the base station and subsidies, subsidies must continue to burn money to build 5G, and then on the old United States, the application of Open-RAN technology, become the open-RAN alliance of the trial stone.
The result? Even Open-RAN is fooling him, and the so-called cost savings have become cutting leeks. Imagine how depressed Watson was when he heard the offer from the equipment vendor. No wonder he changed his face in just half a month. After several years of tossing and turning, the Uk's 5G construction is still stumbling. Perhaps in a few years, the United Kingdom will look back and find that the 5G construction of its home has long become a gold cave filled with dissatisfaction.
The future of Open-RAN is worrying, and Huawei is winning
The rich and wayward United Kingdom will most likely have to pay for Open-RAN, and even if one day, Open-RAN technology achieves its goal, the United Kingdom will only be a stepping stone to its growth path. What's more, the future of Open-RAN now looks worrying.
As mentioned earlier, Huawei did not enter the Open-RAN alliance for a long time. In fact, last year, Nokia also withdrew from the alliance. That is to say, the world's three major communication equipment suppliers, Open-RAN Alliance only one left, which is very unfavorable for its technological development. On the other hand, Open-RAN technology itself is not very popular. Ericsson has previously said that Open-RAN performance cannot be compared with integrated RAN, and it cannot provide the same performance.
What's even more outrageous is that the cheapness of Open-RAN may really be a touted lie. We don't need to say more about Watson's face change, Ericsson has made estimates, and the results show that Open-RAN is more expensive because it requires more equipment and integration costs. The chief architect of BT has also said that open-RAN can save money is the biggest misunderstanding, and the "beginning" of everyone's misconception is precisely when Huawei has just been suppressed.
It seems that Britain has indeed suffered from it. In the future, Open-RAN technology will continue to evolve, but it will not replace the position of traditional technology. Lao Mei spent so much effort against Huawei, and it is likely to be adrift again. The funny thing is that in the whole process, Huawei did not even get up to fight a little, just said: I do not support.
The UK paid the price for his recklessness, but Huawei didn't get hurt by it, and maybe that's lying to win. (Bluegrass)
Huawei is self-defeating? Open-RAN out of civil unrest, BT: My money is all gone
Even if Huawei opposes it, it will engage in Open-RAN's British Telecom and "regrets"