The geopolitical hijacking of open networking

The case of Open RAN

Bibliographic Data

ID11487248
AuthorsJean-Christophe Plantin (0000-0001-8041-6679, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume36
Issue4
Pages404-417
Publication date2021-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-3231 • E-ISSN: 1460-3705
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02673231211028375
OpenAlexW3180549565
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited14

This article investigates how discourses on open networking technologies provide a social imaginary that industry and government actors mobilize in an attempt to expand their control over mobile telecommunications networks. The case of recent initiatives aiming to ‘open up’ radio access network (or RAN, a key component of telecommunications infrastructure) with an ‘open RAN’ model reveals how the US Government came to promote this nascent technology to create an opposition between its own ‘open’ telecommunications networks versus proprietary and presumed ‘untrustworthy’ networks based on foreign equipment, namely Huawei. While a closer look casts doubts on the benefits of open radio access network to increase network security or to open up the equipment market, this case reveals how openness is an ambiguous notion that can be used by governments to exclude foreign trade enemies, while advocating for trust in telecommunications networks

Business · Computer network · Computer security · Government (linguistics · Openness to experience · Opposition (politics · Political science · Ran · Telecommunications · The Imaginary · Computer Science · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Law

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access