The comments were made by Andre Fuetsch, CTO of AT&T at the Big 5G Event 2022 in Austin, Texas.
AT&T committed to the technology early on, forming the Open RAN alliance in early 2018 alongside China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo and Orange.
Earlier this year, the carrier told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it will incorporate Open RAN compliant equipment into its network within the next year.
It isn’t surprising that AT&T will be deploying Open RAN equipment in its private networks using small cells according to Minchul Ho, general manager of America at Baicells - a wireless solutions provider.
“AT&T will be able to sell Open RAN solutions to enterprises and give them more choice over how private networks are built, as the technology enables interoperability between different products and vendors,” he says.
“Open RAN can also help to mitigate interference and balance the traffic load between small cells in a private network environment.
“This is an important stepping-stone for AT&T as it looks to roll out Open RAN across its entire network.”
At the event, Fuetsch said that the first Open RAN products would be indoors and inside buildings.
While he didn’t provide any details on the deployment, Fuetsch’s comments as the operator prepares for its mid-band spectrum deployment that will take place later this year.
In its latest financial results, AT&T revealed a 2.5% increase in revenue for its core wireless business operations and named Jeff McElfresh as its new COO.
