EchoStar has opened the doors at its Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment (ORCID).
The test lab, which will enable the testing and validating of hardware and software solutions is located at EchoStar's Cheyenne, Wyoming, data center.
First announced in January, ORCID will test the hardware and software against a complete commercial-grade Open RAN network deployed by Dish Wireless.
The lab has been supported by a $50 million grant awarded to Dish Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar, by the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Several consortium partners including Fujitsu, Mavenir, and VMware, plus technology partners Analog Devices, Arm, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Intel, JMA Wireless, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Samsung will support the project.
"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.
Ergen said the lab "represents a significant milestone in both EchoStar and the US'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."
EchoStar noted that vendors can now submit applications to participate in ORCID through its web portal.
The funding from the NTIA is the largest grant it has issued to date for its Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund.
It's part of a $1.5 billion pot that was launched last year by the Biden Administration, as the US aims to increase its development of open and interoperable networks, and is funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
In February of last year, Dish launched its virtualized RAN (vRAN) 5G network with the support of South Korean vendor Samsung providing tens of thousands of radios.
It builds on the multi-year partnership that the pair signed in 2022, which sees Samsung providing support for Dish Wireless' 5G Open RAN rollout.
