NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and Department of Defense Select 5G Challenge Contestants from Early-Bird Entries

WASHINGTON – Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS), in Boulder, Colo., in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD), announced 5G Challenge contestants selected from Early-Bird entries. This prize competition aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable components, and multi-vendor solutions toward the development of an open 5G ecosystem.

After evaluating Early-Bird white papers, the 5G Challenge selected Rakuten Mobile USA’s Central Unit (CU) and Distributed Unit (DU) for interoperability testing with the 5G Challenge host lab, CableLabs.

The 5G Challenge Preliminary Event: RAN Subsystem Interoperability remains open for applications through May 5, 2022. The 5G Challenge will accept up to 8 additional subsystems. Applicants must submit their application on Challenge.gov.

In this 2022 first-year 5G Challenge Preliminary Event, ITS will award part of the total $3 million prize purse to contestants who submit winning hardware and/or software solutions for one or more of these 5G network subsystems: DU; CU; and Radio Unit (RU). The rules, location, and details of the second-year event will be released in 2023.

ITS, the Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab, supports the Department of Defense 5G Initiative through a combination of its subject matter experts in 5G and its research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) laboratory infrastructure in Boulder, Colorado, including the Advanced Communications Test Site at the Table Mountain Radio Quiet Zone.