AT&T hands Ericsson five-year, USD14bn Open RAN contract

AT&T has awarded Ericsson a five-year, USD14 billion contract to deploy an Open RAN network. The telco expects to have fully integrated Open RAN sites up and running in 2024, in coordination with Ericsson and Fujitsu. Beginning in 2025, the company will scale this Open RAN environment throughout its mobile network, in coordination with multiple suppliers, including Corning Incorporated, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Fujitsu and Intel. Going forward, AT&T expects 70% of its mobile network traffic to flow across Open-capable platforms by late 2026.

For its part, Ericsson has stated that the deal is the largest financially in its history. The news prompted rival vendor Nokia to issue a public statement, with Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, stating: ‘Whilst the news from AT&T is disappointing, our Mobile Networks business has made significant progress in recent years, increasing our RAN market share and technology leadership.’ AT&T accounted for 5%-8% of net sales at Nokia’s Mobile Networks division in year-to-date in 2023, he noted.