I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2037
To provide outreach and technical assistance to small providers regarding
Open RAN networks, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH11, 2025
Mr. C
ARTERof Louisiana (for himself and Mr. HUDSON) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To provide outreach and technical assistance to small pro-
viders regarding Open RAN networks, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Open RAN Outreach 4
Act’’. 5
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•HR 2037 IH
SEC. 2. OUTREACH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO SMALL 1
PROVIDERS REGARDING OPEN RAN NET-2
WORKS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary shall con-4
duct outreach and provide technical assistance to small 5
communications network providers— 6
(1) to raise awareness regarding the uses, bene-7
fits, and challenges of Open RAN networks and 8
other open network architectures; and 9
(2) regarding participation in the Wireless Sup-10
ply Chain Innovation Grant Program established 11
under section 9202(a)(1) of the William M. (Mac) 12
Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for 13
Fiscal Year 2021 (Public Law 116–283). 14
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
(1) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-16
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of 17
Commerce for Communications and Information, 18
acting through the head of the Office of Internet 19
Connectivity and Growth. 20
(2) O
PEN NETWORK ARCHITECTURE .—The 21
term ‘‘open network architecture’’ means Open RAN 22
networks and other network elements that follow a 23
set of published open standards for multi-vendor 24
network equipment interoperability, including open 25
core and open transport. 26
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•HR 2037 IH
(3) OPEN RAN NETWORK .—The term ‘‘Open 1
RAN network’’ means a wireless network that fol-2
lows the Open Radio Access Network approach to 3
standardization adopted by the O–RAN Alliance, 4
Telecom Infra Project, or Third Generation Partner-5
ship Project (3GPP), or any similar set of published 6
open standards for multi-vendor network equipment 7
interoperability. 8
Æ
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