The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded more than $19 million for research on wireless innovation, including 6G. This was the final round of grants for a second batch of funding opportunities.
The announcement happened Friday, days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The agency awarded DeepSig and Recon RF the grants. DeepSig will receive $9.9 million to research AI-enhanced Open Radio Unit Massive MIMO, while Recon RF will get $9.4 million to investigate Ultra-Efficient Front-End-Modules (FEMs) for 5G and 6G Open Radio Units.
“Our awards are tackling a major wireless network expense head-on with support to bring more open radio units to market,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson.
The latest grants are part of the $1.5 billion Wireless Innovation Fund to “support the development of open and interoperable wireless networks.” According to the agency, NTIA has awarded over $550 million from the fund.
Massive MIMO and 6G
Each company will focus on different aspects of research:
- DeepSig ($9,964,628): The project led by DeepSig will aim to enable Open Radio Unit and chipset vendors to implement advanced AI functions to engender a healthy and cost-competitive massive multiple input, multiple output (mMIMO) Open Radio Unit ecosystem.
- Recon RF ($9,463,452): on the other hand, Recon RF will conduct advanced R&D to develop ultra-efficient Front-End Modules for next-generation 5G and 6G open radio units.
In a press statement, DeepSig detailed that it will work in partnership with Fujitsu and Qualcomm. According to the company, Fujitsu will provide mMIMO Open RAN Radio Units (O-RUs) deployed by leading MNOs. Qualcomm will provide its advanced QRU10xx chipset.
“Together, these innovations will accelerate the adoption of OpenRAN 5G networks and establish the foundation for AI-driven 6G technologies, shaping the future of wireless communication,” said DeepSig CEO Jim Shea.
