ORCID Celebrates Grand Opening, A New Era for Open RAN Innovation

Orcid Staff | September 18, 2024

CHEYENNE, WYO. - EchoStar Corporation celebrated the grand opening of the Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. Supported by a $50 million grant from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund), the state-of-the-art facility is poised to play a pivotal role in advancing U.S. leadership in Open RAN.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Sarah Morris joined EchoStar’s Co-Founders Charlie and Candy Ergen, along with executives from ORCID’s consortium and technology partners, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The event highlighted the collaboration between the Department of Commerce, EchoStar, and leading Open RAN technology providers to strengthen the nation’s wireless technology ecosystem.

Ravinder Jarral, Vice President of Network Development at EchoStar and emcee for the event, emphasized the importance of these partnerships in bringing ORCID to life. He underscored EchoStar’s collaboration with consortium partners Mavenir, VMware, and Fujitsu, as well as technology partners Dell, AWS, Viavi, and Keysight, in creating a facility at the cutting edge of Open RAN innovation.

“ORCID was designed to represent the very best that Open RAN has to offer, with support from the most innovative vendors in the industry,” Jarral remarked. “Together, we work to strengthen the ecosystem and ensure that open and secure networks prevail into the future.”

Jarral also emphasized the facility is a "living laboratory," allowing companies to validate their hardware and software.

“ORCID is helping fulfill a critical need in the industry,” Jarral explained. “It provides a fully operational, end-to-end, commercial-grade network for testing Open RAN solutions. There is no other lab of its kind globally.”

Following Jarral’s introduction, EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen reflected on the company’s journey to Open RAN leadership, crediting the expertise of consortium and technology partners for EchoStar’s success in building the world’s largest cloud-native 5G Open RAN network.

“With their help, EchoStar has built the largest 5G Open RAN network in the world,” Ergen said. “This is a network that’s ready for the future. And we did it in record time for building any network.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Sarah Morris highlighted the $1.5 billion Innovation Fund and the national importance of advancing Open RAN technology and strengthening the U.S. wireless industry’s competitiveness.

Morris praised ORCID as a transformative platform for testing Open RAN technologies in a real-world environment, explaining how the Innovation Fund's support has helped overcome barriers that can make trusted testing inaccessible to smaller players in the wireless market.

“This award was so important because testing is foundational to proving interoperability, but trusted testing is hard to do and often inaccessible to new and emerging players,” Morris said. “Thanks to this award, along with a $25 million contribution from EchoStar, ORCID went from an empty lab to a fully operational, state-of-the-art facility in just six short months.”

Morris also stressed that ORCID is the only testbed offering a real-world environment composed of many different vendors across all levels of the cellular system. The facility provides smaller manufacturers an opportunity to lower developmental costs by eliminating the need to establish their own testing infrastructure.

“ORCID’s ability to lower developmental costs will help bring high-quality Open RAN systems to market faster,” Morris remarked. “This is not just a benefit for the industry, but for everyone, as it will drive competition, improve supply chain security, and ultimately lower costs for consumers.”

As the ceremony concluded, attendees participated in the official ribbon-cutting and were given a tour of the ORCID facility. The tour provided a closer look at the technology and advanced automation that is central to ORCID’s testing capabilities.

EchoStar and its partners remain committed to pushing the boundaries of wireless technology, with ORCID leading the way toward the next generation of network solutions.

As Ergen concluded, “The work we do at ORCID is more than just a lab - it's a commitment to fostering innovation, advancing U.S. wireless leadership, and ensuring Open RAN continues to thrive. We're excited to embark on this journey and believe that ORCID will drive the success of future wireless networks, both here and around the world.”