WASHINGTON – Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS), in Boulder, Colo., announced the launch of the 5G Challenge in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD). This prize competition aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable components, and multi-vendor solutions toward the development of an open 5G ecosystem.

“Increasing the resilience and security of our supply chain is at the heart of NTIA’s work to incentivize open and interoperable 5G networks and increase the diversity of suppliers in the 5G ecosystem,” said Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator. “NTIA and ITS are excited to collaborate with the Department of Defense on the 5G Challenge because it reinforces our joint understanding that cost-effective, secure 5G networks are key to both national and economic security.”

In the 5G Challenge Preliminary Event, ITS will award a total prize purse of up to $3 million to contestants who submit hardware and/or software solutions for one or more of these 5G network subsystems:  Distributed Unit (DU); Centralized Unit (CU); Radio Unit (RU). The rules, location, and details of the second-year event will be released in 2023.

The 5G Challenge Preliminary Event: RAN Subsystem Interoperability is open for applications through May 5, 2022. Applicants must submit their application on Challenge.gov.

ITS, the Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab, supports the Department of Defense 5G Initiative through a combination of its subject matter experts in 5G and its research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) laboratory infrastructure in Boulder, Colorado, including the Advanced Communications Test Site at the Table Mountain Radio Quiet Zone.