Microsoft insists it has no desire to compete with mobile operators, despite its acquisition of two cloud-based packet core providers, Metaswitch and Affirmed Networks. These assets give it the ability to provide network-as-a-service to enterprises wanting private 5G, or even to smaller telcos, but the company wrote in a recent filing that it was “committed to working with, not disintermediating, operators”.
The comments were made in filings, with the US regulator, about Open RAN, in response to a Notice of Inquiry issued by the FCC on the topic. Microsoft no doubt has its eye on increased business with operators for its Azure cloud platform, potentially to support telco networks as AWS is going to do for Dish Network.
Microsoft believes that an open RAN architecture is critical to achieving a fully cloud-based network that reaches the mobile access, but also that the cloud is the key to Open RAN. The company does not accept the thesis of some players that open interfaces, notably in the fronthaul and midhaul links between disaggregated network elements, are enough to qualify as Open RAN, or to break open the closed RAN supply chain in full.
However, it does think Open RAN is a multi-stage journey, and that the platform will be more fully cloud-based during the latter stages of its evolution. “To reach its full potential, Open RAN must be paired with cloud capabilities. This will occur in stages, with greater use of the cloud in later stages” the company wrote.
It sees the telco’s progress to the cloud as taking place in three main phases. First, virtualizing the core, coupled with public cloud partnerships at the edge or customer premise. In the second phase, telcos will move selected network functions to the cloud, and in the third, they will start to adopt “sophisticated access technologies like Open RAN and handle real time traffic”.
Microsoft called on the FCC to encourage the industry to come up with a certification scheme for Open RAN, similar to the OnGo system for CBRS networks, or the WiFi Alliance’s programs. “An industry certification program for Open RAN can be a significant milestone, where every component provider gets certified”, the company wrote.