The geopolitical hijacking of open networking: the case of Open RAN

Abstract

This article investigates how discourses on open networking technologies provide a social imaginary that industry and government actors mobilize in an attempt to expand their control over mobile telecommunications networks. The case of recent initiatives aiming to ‘open up’ radio access network (or RAN, a key component of telecommunications infrastructure) with an ‘open RAN’ model reveals how the US Government came to promote this nascent technology to create an opposition between its own ‘open’ telecommunications networks versus proprietary and presumed ‘untrustworthy’ networks based on foreign equipment, namely Huawei. While a closer look casts doubts on the benefits of open radio access network to increase network security or to open up the equipment market, this case reveals how openness is an ambiguous notion that can be used by governments to exclude foreign trade enemies, while advocating for trust in telecommunications networks.

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“…However, O-RAN is still at the early stage and needs further research to fully realize in the next generation mobile networks. Major problems, especially security related, can be summarized as the hijacking attack of open networking, the doubt of trustworthy O-RAN, inter-operability, and standardization [73,74] .…”

A Survey on Open Radio Access Networks: Challenges, Research Directions, and Open Source Approaches

“…In addition, there might be political reasons involved behind the Open RAN movement. This notion was researched, and Open RAN was considered a geopolitical hijacking case [129]. By considering Open RAN as a social imaginary of openness and trustworthiness, Open RAN can be weaponized to outcompete rivals by parties ranging from industry to government.…”