Quezon City, Philippines – The historic bilateral talks between U.S. President Joseph Biden, Jr. and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. held on Labor Day this year are seeing results, with the U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) grant support to build the Open Radio Access Network (RAN) Interoperability Laboratory in the country.
The interoperability lab is the flagship initiative in the two leaders’ commitment to promote increased cooperation and knowledge sharing between the United States and the Philippines through the Science and Technology Agreement (STA).
USAID, through the Better Access and Connectivity (BEACON) Project and the Asia Open RAN Academy (AORA), will design the interoperability lab through a co-creation process and work to establish it. The lab will eventually be turned over to the AORA, which is expected to operate it and ensure its sustainability.
Mr. Achie Atienza, AORA Board of Directors (BOD) Chair shares, “We are extremely excited to begin works on the setup of the interoperability lab and are now starting its development phase with our stakeholders including the USAID, BEACON, and partners from universities and government to make sure that the design and objective of the interoperability lab captures the needs of its intended users and beneficiaries.”
For the lab’s operations phase, AORA will establish governance and management structures and will actively engage partners to ensure its sustainable operations. To this end, it has signed MOUs and MOAs with ten (10) state universities and colleges nationwide, one (1) private university in Cebu, four (4) national organizations, three (3) international organizations, and one (1) government institution.
————————
About AORA
AORA was co-created with the USAID-funded Indo-Pacific Opportunity Project (IPOP). On March 31, 2023, AORA became an independent not-for-profit organization duly recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission as an International Non-Government Organization (NGO).
The AORA is the only institution solely working on advancing Open RAN in the country.
