ORCID funded by $50
million Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant,
supporting global Open RAN investment
Vendors invited to apply for Open RAN
commercial testing and evaluation opportunities
CHEYENNE, Wyo., July 15,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- EchoStar Corporation
(Nasdaq: SATS) today announced the launch of the Open RAN Center
for Integration and Deployment (ORCID), a state-of-the-art Open RAN
(O-RAN) testing and evaluation lab housed at EchoStar's
Cheyenne, Wyoming, data
center.
The facility, which is supported by a $50
million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund),
offers vendors the opportunity to test and validate O-RAN
solutions using EchoStar's live commercial-grade cloud-native Open
RAN network.
"The Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) is
now open for business. We appreciate the trust and partnership of
NTIA in this effort, which includes a historic $50 million grant from the Innovation Fund,"
said Charlie Ergen,
co-founder and chairman, EchoStar. "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. We
look forward to the groundbreaking advancements expected to emerge
from this initiative."
The launch of ORCID, which comes six months after NTIA
Administrator Alan Davidson and
Innovation Fund Director Amanda
Toman announced the Innovation Fund grant at an
EchoStar 5G site in Las Vegas,
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. ORCID's "living laboratory" features a real field test
setup, which will help drive the O-RAN ecosystem from the lab to
commercial deployment.
EchoStar manages the ORCID consortium, which includes Fujitsu,
Mavenir, VMware by Broadcom, and a variety of other technology
partners. EchoStar, with the help of its consortium partners,
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.
"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, VP of 5G Wireless Partner Engagement and
Delivery and head of the ORCID program, 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."
Vendors interested in participating in ORCID may now submit
applications using the ORCID web portal at orcid.us/.
For more information on ORCID, please visit ORCID.us.
About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) is a premier provider of
technology, networking services, television entertainment and
connectivity, offering consumer, enterprise, operator, and
government solutions worldwide under its EchoStar®, Boost Mobile®,
Sling TV, DISH TV, Hughes®, HughesNet®, HughesON™, and JUPITER™
brands. In Europe, EchoStar
operates under its EchoStar Mobile Limited subsidiary and in
Australia, the company operates as
EchoStar Global Australia. For more information,
visit www.echostar.com and follow EchoStar on X (Twitter)
and LinkedIn.
©2024 EchoStar. Hughes, HughesNet, DISH, and Boost Mobile are
registered trademarks of one or more affiliate companies of
EchoStar Corp.
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SOURCE EchoStar Corporation