U.S. Army Selects EchoStar's Hughes to Deploy 5G Open RAN with RAN Intelligent Controller at Fort Bliss

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Last update: Nov 19, 2024

$6.5M Contract Will Support Open RAN with a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) Experimentation for U.S. Department of Defense

DENVER, Nov. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- EchoStar Corporation, (Nasdaq: SATS) today shared that its subsidiary Hughes Network Systems, LLC, was awarded a $6.5 million contract to deploy a 5G Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) prototype at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The network will feature a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), which will allow the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to test RIC-based software applications for military networks. The 5G Open RAN prototype equipment will be installed on Fort Bliss to operate a temporary network for evaluation purposes, which will then transition to serve as part of the Hughes commercial network supporting both DoD and commercial customers in and around Fort Bliss. The project is a joint effort of the U.S. Army, the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO), and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)).