How can Open RAN Minimize Supply Chain Disruption?

Supply chain disruption isn’t a distant threat—it’s already hitting mobile networks. You may not see it yet, but mobile operators face multiplying risks: semiconductor shortages, sudden tariff shifts, hostile state actors, raw material shocks, and increasingly erratic weather are quietly eroding your ability to build, maintain, and scale your infrastructure. For Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), the supply chain is no longer just a back-office function, it’s a strategic vulnerability.

Reliance on Proprietary Architecture Compromises Agility

If you’re still relying on proprietary, vertically integrated network stacks, your agility is already compromised. The question isn’t whether your supply chain will be tested again. It’s whether your architecture will let you survive the next punch. That’s why leading operators are turning to Open RAN—not just for innovation or cost savings, but as a weapon against supply chain disruption.

The Reality of Risk for Mobile Operators

Listen to recent earnings calls. Read the risk sections of operator annual reports. The writing is on the wall:

• Vodafone warns in its 2025 annual report that “disruption in our supply chain could mean we are unable to execute our strategic plans, resulting in increased cost, reduced choice, and lower network quality.” The report cites U.S.–China tensions, the war in Ukraine, potential Taiwan conflict, and tariff shocks as direct threats to operations.
• AT&T, in its Responsible Supply Chain statement, explicitly ties rising geopolitical tensions to the need for stronger supply chain diversification and resilience. The company acknowledges that “unexpected events may impact AT&T’s suppliers and supply chain.”
• According to a 2023 TXO survey of over 90 global operators, 85% reported delays from supply chain issues, 45% saw network performance degradation, and 39% experienced revenue impacts.

That’s not isolated risk. That’s systemic vulnerability.

The Flawed Assumption: “This Won’t Affect Us”

Many operators have not yet made supply chain resilience a C-suite priority. They still treat it as a procurement problem—not a survival issue. But with concentrated vendor ecosystems and limited flexibility, many current network architectures cannot easily react to serious supply chain disruption.

If your vendor is hit by a natural disaster, high tariffs, or a cyberattack, do you have options? Or are you stuck with a years-long vendor rip-and-replace process while you fall behind competitors who can pivot?

Open RAN is a Strategic Antidote to Supply Chain Disruption

This is where Open RAN changes the game. Unlike traditional RAN deployments locked in to a single vendor, Open RAN allows operators to decouple hardware and software and procure components from a broader ecosystem of suppliers. That’s not just a design decision. It’s a resilience strategy.

Open RAN replaces vertical integration with a modular, multivendor architecture governed by standardized interfaces. That means:

• Radios from one supplier
• Baseband software from another
• Cloud infrastructure from another
• Orchestration tools layered on top from yet another

Unless you are working with pre-integrated vendors, Open RAN can take some time to integrate. But as the cases below illustrate, it is much faster to introduce a new vendor into an existing Open RAN network than it is to rip and replace a vendor in a traditional proprietary network. Open RAN thus makes it possible to pivot if any single supplier encounters too many substantial delays, cost hikes, policy barriers, or component shortages. Operators regain control. And when the unexpected happens (and it will), they’re not stuck.

This isn’t theory. It’s been tested in the real world.

NTT DOCOMO’s Supply Chain Success Story

As one of the earliest adopters of Open RAN, DOCOMO had already begun deploying Open RAN when the global pandemic struck. When the resulting semiconductor shortage threatened radio unit deliveries, NTT DOCOMO didn’t pause. They reassigned procurement across multiple vendors, selecting whichever supplier could deliver components and meet deadlines.

According to Sadayuki Abeta-san, Chief Open RAN Strategist at DOCOMO, Open RAN flexibility ensured that deployments stayed on track. It wasn’t just an operational win. It proved Open RAN’s value as a structural defense against disruption.

Industry Perspective: Vodafone’s Supply Chain Vision

Few operators have been more outspoken on this issue than Vodafone. In 2020, Vodafone shared their Open RAN vision, stating:

“The global mobile network equipment supply chain has become increasingly concentrated, with just three scale suppliers… Open architecture networks allow network operators to source from a more diverse range of vendors. This dynamic ecosystem drives competition, avoids vendor lock-in, boosts innovation, and increases the resilience and security of future generation networks.”

In 2023, Vodafone launched their first Open RAN sites  “to provide much needed diversity to the telecommunications supply chain.” Vodafone isn’t alone in deploying Open RAN. Other operators—including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Rakuten Mobile, and others—are doing the same.

1Finity’s Role in Building Resilient Networks

At 1Finity, we’re not just advocates of Open RAN—we’re building, deploying, and scaling it. We partner with operators across the globe to:

• Deliver interoperable, standards-based Open RAN infrastructure
• Support multivendor testing and integration
• Enable flexible sourcing that empowers procurement teams
• Provide deployment expertise to reduce risk and cut time to market

We’ve seen Open RAN succeed and are happy to share our experiences.

The Next Disruption is Coming—Build Like you Know it.

The supply chain is now a strategic layer of the mobile network. Open RAN doesn’t just increase competition – it increases resilience. It puts control back in the hands of operators.

For MNOs that want to survive and thrive through the next supply chain disruption, flexibility isn’t a luxury. It’s the new foundation. Now is the time to rethink how you build—and how you defend—your network.