Summary Bullets:
• Echostar, owner of Boost Mobile, will sell its wireless spectrum to AT&T and decommission its Open virtual RAN – which Open RAN proponents had long pointed to as a proof-point of Open RAN’s value.
• The news not only impacts Boost Mobile’s RAN suppliers but could also become a symbol of Open RAN’s long struggle to accelerate adoption and a bellwether for the sector’s near-term prospects.
Echostar’s move this week to sell its wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T and transition into a “hybrid mobile network operator” is a grim milestone for the Open RAN ecosystem, since the company’s Boost Mobile operator unit says it will wind down parts of its open virtual RAN (vRAN) as a result.