AT&T's $14bn Open RAN bet hits 50% of traffic as the standard turns toward 6G

Summary

AT&T's up-to-$14bn, five-year Ericsson deal, the largest Open RAN commitment by any operator, has moved roughly 50% of its wireless traffic onto open-capable platforms, toward a 70% target by end-2026, with Nokia gear stripped from large parts of the network and the first live calls over third-party (1Finity/Fujitsu) radios completed. In Europe, Vodafone runs commercial Open RAN in the UK and Romania, targets 2,500 UK sites by 2027 and 30% of European masts by 2030. Rakuten Mobile in Japan added Airspan radios. Ericsson, once a holdout, is now among the O-RAN Alliance's most active contributors, supplying the RAN Intelligent Controller for non-Ericsson equipment as the industry eyes 5g-to-6G.

By the numbers

• $14bn, AT&T's five-year Ericsson Open RAN deal (largest by any operator).
• ~50%, share of AT&T traffic on open-capable platforms, target 70% by end-2026.
• 2,500, UK Open RAN sites Vodafone targets by 2027.
• 30%, European masts Vodafone aims to run on Open RAN by 2030.
• 5M+, Rakuten Mobile subscribers across 15+ vendors at 99.5% availability.

Why it matters

Open RAN promises to break vendor lock-in (Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei) by letting operators mix radios, software and silicon, a supply-chain and national-security goal as much as a cost one. AT&T's scale is the closest thing yet to proof it can carry a tier-1 network.

What to watch

• Whether AT&T actually hits 70% of traffic on open platforms by end-2026.
• Vodafone's Wismar and UK site count against its 2027 target.
• How Open RAN architecture shapes early 6G standard decisions.