O-RAN Alliance Faces Icy Member Relations Over China Links

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Because of alleged relations with the Chinese military by O-RAN Alliance members Kindroid and Pythium, other members, like Nokia, have reportedly put a freeze on contributions to the group, according to Politico

Nokia, one of the Alliance’s leading financial supporters, has cited U.S. policy concerns over technological advances made by the Chinese military and the subsequent restrictions placed on Huawei and ZTE. The U.S. State Department said the companies were in violation of the international Wassenaar Arrangement On Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies by exporting technology to both North Korea and Iran.

As reported by Politico, Nokia informed the Alliance: “We have no choice but to suspend all of our technical work activities” in the group because of a “compliance-related matter … regarding the O-RAN contributors included in the U.S. entity list.”

The O-RAN Alliance, with 44 Chinese member companies out of 200, is a vehicle developed for members to exchange specifications on OpenRAN once every six months. Current members, some on the U.S. list of banned entities, are able to get fresh OpenRAN code at least twice a year. With Chinese state-owned companies making up over twenty percent of the O-RAN Alliance membership, non-Chinese companies are reconsidering their participation in the group according to Politico, with Nokia being the most prominent to date to put their relations on hold. Others.members of the Alliance include telecom’s Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Vodafone and “Big Tech” companies Facebook, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco.

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