Rural US operator Triangle Communications and Mavenir laid claim to the first deployment of an open RAN network spurred by a Federal Communication Commission (FCC) programme to fund replacement of Huawei equipment.

Triangle Communications moved to replace Huawei equipment ahead of the FCC dispersing funds for its Reimbursement Programme.

Mavenir announced it provided a cloud-native, converged packet core, open RAN and compliant radio units.

Triangle Communications CEO Craig Gates stated it selected Mavenir for its systems integration capabilities and expertise, which he said enabled the operator to meet the forthcoming FCC requirements.

The FCC announced the programme in 2021, offering a pot totalling $1.9 billion to operators serving less than 10 million customers to cover the cost of replacing equipment from Huawei and ZTE.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel reportedly called for an additional $3.1 billion to be made available for the scheme in July as the regulator began to process the first compensation claims by operators.