IIB
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4032
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 21, 2021
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
AN ACT
To provide outreach and technical assistance to small providers regarding Open RAN networks, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the Open RAN Outreach Act
.
Outreach and technical assistance to small providers regarding Open RAN networks
In general
The Assistant Secretary shall conduct outreach and provide technical assistance to small communications network providers—
to raise awareness regarding the uses, benefits, and challenges of Open RAN networks and other open network architectures; and
regarding participation in the Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Grant Program established under section 9202(a)(1) of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (Public Law 116–283).
Definitions
In this section:
Assistant Secretary
The term Assistant Secretary
means the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, acting through the head of the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth.
Open network architecture
The term open network architecture
means Open RAN networks and other network elements that follow a set of published open standards for multi-vendor network equipment interoperability, including open core and open transport.
Open RAN network
The term Open RAN network
means a wireless network that follows the Open Radio Access Network approach to standardization adopted by the O–RAN Alliance, Telecom Infra Project, or Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), or any similar set of published open standards for multi-vendor network equipment interoperability.
Passed the House of Representatives October 20, 2021.
Cheryl L. Johnson,
Clerk