The governments of the U.K., Australia, Canada and the U.S. have jointly agreed to work together on diverse, secure and resilient telecommunications supply chains. The statement sets out initiatives, including building on the United Kingdom’s Open RAN Principles which were published earlier this year. This statement comes on the first anniversary of the 2021 Prague Proposals on telecommunications supplier diversity, which was also a step toward multilateral cooperation.
“The U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K. are committed to ensuring the security and resilience of our telecommunications networks, including by fostering a diverse supply chain and influencing the development of future telecommunications technologies such as 6G,” the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration said in a statement. “Collectively, we recognise that open and interoperable architectures are one way of creating a more open, diverse and innovative market.”
The countries endorsed the U.K.’s strategy for achieving open-interface solutions, such as Open RAN. Certain principles need to be met, according to the U.K., including open disaggregation of the RAN elements based on compliance with standards in an open, neutral environment.
The technology should demonstrate interoperability with disaggregated elements working together as a fully functional system. However, suppliers are allowed to innovate and differentiate on the features and performance of their products.
The British, Australian, Canadian and U.S. defense industries share a history of business cooperation and investment that dates back decades and continues today, according to the National Defense Industry Association.
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