A year after AT&T’s $14 billion open RAN deal with Ericsson which included replacing Nokia gear, the US mobile operator added Mavenir and struck a new tie-up with Fujitsu as it ramps its ecosystem of network infrastructure providers and suppliers.

AT&T marks a much needed customer win for open RAN pioneer Mavenir, which is reported to be struggling to stay afloat.

And while Fujitsu was listed as one of the partners back when the deal was announced, industry pundits questioned whether working with one of the telecom industry’s biggest RAN vendors truly marked a move to open RAN.

AT&T COO Jeff McElfresh stated on a call with journalists the operator’s open RAN strategy always included a multi-vendor approach.

He said Ericsson is the obvious choice because of its large presence in its network, but said the vendor needed a push to open its radio architecture.

McElfresh noted “up until the deal that we drove, they were somewhat unwilling to let some disruptive technology partners into the mix”.

AT&T sought vendors that worked across brownfield open RAN deployments on networks with live traffic, according to McElfresh.

The operator inked new agreements with Fujitsu and Mavenir to develop radios specifically for crowded urban areas, according to a blog by two AT&T executives. AT&T will use small cells as part of its densification strategy for high traffic areas.

The gear includes open C-band radios (TDD 4T4R) and dual band radios (B25/B66 FDD 4T4R) that can be attached to existing utility and light poles.

The open radios will be managed by Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) through open management interfaces.

McElfresh stated deploying Fujitsu and Mavenir will also enable AT&T to better manage its spectrum as bandwidth usage increases.

“We see the strategic value of our RAN modernisation as a way to create an open environment where I can use the nation’s largest fibre network to find ways to serve traffic without the need to rely upon more licensed spectrum being available in the market,” he stated.

AT&T’s goal is to move 70 per cent of its 5G network traffic across open hardware by late 2026 .

McElfresh explained the network modernisation plan includes touching every cell site in the operator’s footprint while also using drones and AI to make a digital twin of each one.

“We’re going to be able to streamline our footprint inside of our tower configurations, and we’re going to limit the number of variables, and so those give us some scale advantages for efficiency, and then obviously we’re going to lower our energy costs, because we get to kind of clean up that radio deck in a way that we haven’t really touched in ten plus years.”

Each of the cell towers will have the ability to integrate open RAN radios, either on the tower or in a service area.

Nokia swap out
McElfresh stated AT&T spent the first part of 2024 dialling in swap protocols and processes for the Nokia gear and existing Ericsson sites. It expects the entire swap out will ramp up every quarter ahead of completion in late 2026 or early 2027.

“We’ve done thousands of these [upgrades.] We’ve done enough now where our process has proven to us that we can do it with minimal disruption to service.”