Behind Huawei's retreat: Ericsson and Nokia compete for benefits.

The US ban on Huawei should have given Ericsson and Nokia a leading position in the lucrative wireless base station market. But this is not the case.

The attack on Huawei gives startups such as Altiostar and new entrants including Qualcomm a rare opportunity to take a slice of the $35 billion mobile phone network in the telecom industry every year.

"This may break the decades-old lock of technology suppliers," said AT & amp； Andre, chief technology officer of T Company's network service, said. "This is about how to create a more competitive innovation ecosystem."

Technology is politicized.

Base station is the core of cellular network, which supplies power to millions of antennas on base station towers and city roofs all over the world. Previously, these boxes were a proprietary combination of processors and software and had to be purchased at one time. Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia account for three-quarters of this market, with an annual value of up to $35 billion, according to research firm Del Oro Group.

Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) can change this situation. It creates an open base station design standard and ensures that all software and components can work well together, no matter who provides the equipment.

This is a potential fundamental change. When telecom giants such as at&T and China Mobile want to expand their networks, they usually have to call existing suppliers to order more of the same products, because Nokia's boxes can't be used with Ericsson's boxes. New technologies make it easier for wireless operators to mix and match.

This move also means that new suppliers can succeed by focusing on one or two components or single software, instead of spending a lot of time and money to build the entire base station from scratch.

Since 20 18 established an industry alliance to promote this technology, O-RAN equipment has rarely landed. But when the United States took a tough stance against Huawei last year and encouraged other countries to crack down, people's interest in O-RAN applications increased. Huawei is a low-cost supplier. Now, because Huawei can't serve some markets, operators are more willing to consider embracing more flexible O-RAN alternative suppliers.

"The increase in geopolitical uncertainty helps them get invitations that they wouldn't normally get," said Stefan Pongratz, an analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "Not only in Europe, but also around the world, many manufacturers are basically reassessing their risks to Huawei."

According to Dell'Oro, open standard base stations will generate about $5 billion in sales in the next five years, exceeding the initial forecast.

Ericsson questioned the performance and cost performance of current O-RAN products. But telecom companies that decide where to spend their money are not ashamed to tell existing suppliers to join, otherwise they may be left behind.

"We have always been honest with them. Adam Koeppe, who is in charge of technology strategy, architecture and planning of Verizon Communications, the largest wireless operator in the United States, said, "This is the architecture that operators are pursuing.

In the list of companies competing to fill the gap left by Huawei, there are both established companies in the technical field and new companies. Startups such as Qualcomm, Intel Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Dell Technologies, Altiostar, Airspan Networks and Mavenir Systems are also trying to explore niche markets.

Supporters of O-RAN point out that Lotte Corporation, a Japanese e-commerce provider, has successfully used this technology to enter the field of mobile phone services. The company started to provide 4G wireless service in April and is now upgrading to 5G. O-RAN suppliers used include NEC, Qualcomm, Intel, Altiostar and Airspan. Lotte said that using this more open method, capital expenditure was reduced by 40% and operating costs were reduced by 30%.

Dish Network, with the help of Altiostar, is building a 5G wireless network in the United States. Thierry Maupilé, executive vice president of strategy and product management at Altiostar, said that such new projects are very good, but the real opportunities are those operators who switch their existing networks to O-RAN. The tewkesbury, Massachusetts-based company has raised more than $300 million from investors such as Lotte, Qualcomm and Cisco.

As a part of the driving force, O-RAN makes all kinds of computer networks more flexible and easy to control. By standardizing hardware and using more software in centralized data centers, companies can run networks more cheaply and repair and upgrade networks more easily. 5G needs this flexibility to work well.

For at & amp； T, the new method has begun to help. At&T Company. Fuetsch of T said that the company has introduced Samsung devices based on O-RAN in areas previously limited to Ericsson devices.

Nokia is expected to launch a full range of O-RAN products in 20021year. Sandro Tavares, global marketing director, said that some final standards have not yet been determined and need to be completed and tested, which will take time.

"O-RAN is supported by more than 20 major operators around the world, so it is obvious that people strongly demand to realize O-RAN," he said. "This is a major move in our industry. For the main players, we are very clear that we should not cut corners in this process. "