O-RAN Alliance vision and principles

Why O-RAN Exists

Traditional RAN architecture is proprietary — a single vendor provides the entire base station hardware and software, locking operators into long-term contracts with limited flexibility. The O-RAN Alliance was founded in 2018 by major operators including AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO, and Orange. Their mission: transform the RAN industry from a closed, single-vendor model into an open, multi-vendor ecosystem. O-RAN builds on top of 3GPP standards rather than replacing them, adding open interfaces and intelligence layers that 3GPP does not define.