Open RAN Laboratory turned over to UP

Content originally from UP Website | August 7, 2025 | Written by Fred Dabu

Featured image: (From left) DTI Assistant Director Karl Lyndon Pacolor, EEEI Director Lew Andrew Tria, UPD Engineering Dean Maria Antonia Tanchuling, UPD Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II, UP President Angelo Jimenez, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Loss Carlson, and US Embassy delegate Ryan Washburn lead the ceremonial ribbon cutting. Photo by Jonathan Madrid, UP MPRO.

The Open Radio Access Network Laboratory at the University of the Philippines, a project funded by the United States and supported by Japan, was formally turned over to the university through the signing of a deed of donation and acceptance and ribbon cutting ceremony on Aug. 1 at the UP Diliman Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute.  

According to the EEEI, the lab “is envisioned to be a center for collaboration among mobile network operators, ICT vendors, industry organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, and other development partners, and aims to promote open and disaggregated network technologies, particularly open radio access networks, to foster a robust telecommunications environment.” Among its functions are: serve as a training facility for students, specialists, and a wider network of stakeholders; promote local and global partnerships; and advance software and hardware development.

US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Loss Carlson said this state-of-the-art Open RAN Lab — the first in the Philippines — is a “fruit of the trilateral partnership of US, Japan and the Philippines.”  She said the lab lays “the foundation of telecommunications infrastructure that is open, secure and more inclusive, and will drive sustainable progress.” Carlson added that the lab is expected to be “a dynamic hub for groundbreaking research” and “positions the Philippines as a global leader in the telecommunications industry and a catalyst for transformation across the region.” 

John Garrity, chief of party of  the Better Access and Connectivity Project, said BEACON has supported over 60 related policies and laws and provided connectivity to households in remote communities from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi since its launch four years ago. He noted that this lab is a pioneering facility co-designed by partners from different sectors and that it “underscores the US government’s support for digital transformation in the Philippines.”

Messages of support were also conveyed by the following: First Secretary Koji Isowa from the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, National Telecommunications Commission Commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez, Department of Information and Communications Technology Assistant Secretary Philip Varilla, Department of Trade and Industry Assistant Director Karl Lyndon Pacolor, Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute Director Franz de Leon, DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development Director Enrico Paringit, Asia Open RAN Academy Chairperson Vincent Atienza, and by representatives of Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Viavi Solutions, and Ark One Solutions. The soft launch for the project was held last 

The project’s soft launch was held last January 2025.