Written by Mike Dano for LightReading.com

The US government is plowing $1.5 billion into the open RAN industry in the hopes of cultivating domestic suppliers for 5G. But it's not exactly clear how that money will be spent.

Not surprisingly, the US wireless industry has plenty of ideas on where the money should go. Almost 100 domestic and international 5G players recently submitted their spending suggestions to the NTIA – the federal agency in charge of the $1.5 billion – as part of its "Wireless Innovation Fund" program.

ETSI, the organisation for globally applicable standards for information and communication technology (ICT), has adopted a new instrument, Software Development Groups (SDGs).

This game-changing move will help ETSI adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of technology and standards development. Developing software to accompany standards will accelerate the standardization process, providing faster feedback loops and improving the quality of standards.

Ericsson has expanded its indoor mobile connectivity portfolio with three new easy-to-deploy and cost-efficient solutions aimed at delivering 5G coverage, capacity and capabilities across the interior of any work or business environment – regardless of the size or complexity of the building. The new solutions become part of the Ericsson Radio Dot System portfolio, further increasing the flexibility of this industry-leading portfolio.

mmWave small cell player confirms a trial with Verizon, and says the operator is also a strategic investor.

Verana Networks, a mmWave small cells start-up that TMN covered last year, has announced details of a new trial with Verizon, and revealed for the first time that Verizon has been a strategic investor in the start-up.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have their sights set on 6G.

Samsung Electronics announced that, along with Japan's KDDI, it succeeded in demonstrating network slicing technology on a live 5G Standalone (SA) network on Jan. 20.
 
Network slicing enables a physical network to be partitioned into multiple virtual networks to offer high-speed, low-latency communication.

The latest in the Telecom Trailblazers series.

Hello, I’m Maria Lema and I am a co-founder of Weaver Labs, a B2B tech start-up building an open marketplace of telecommunications assets. We pride ourselves on offering a decentralised infrastructure powered by owners of infrastructure, with an extensive focus on security and accelerating innovation through connectivity.

As we edge closer to the end of another fiscal year, Keith Bullock​​—Program Director at DCMS —reflects.

The UK's competitive economy, full of world-class talent and scientific research excellence provides a brilliant environment for progressing research and development. We’ve seen this first hand in the incredible progress from our initial projects stemming from the £250 million diversification-focused R&D programme.