Open Networks Research and Development Fund: baseline study
Baseline evidence on the UK Open Radio Access Network (RAN) market, which will be used in the evaluation of the Open Networks Research and Development Fund.
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This study was carried out by Frontier Economics for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), formerly commissioned by Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The Open Networks Research and Development (R&D) Fund is the £250 million government supported programme to deliver upon the UK’s 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy.
In order to establish the effects and value for money of the fund, we will conduct 3 formal evaluations in this decade:
- the initial evaluation (recently started)
- the interim evaluation (expected 2026 to 2027)
- the final evaluation (expected 2029 to 2030)
These evaluations will help us to assess the impact of the programme, as well as informing future policy decisions in this area.
The evaluation baseline study is a preliminary step in this process, establishing the state of the Open Radio Access Network (RAN) market before the programme takes full effect, which we can then use as a baseline to measure impact against in the future.
The study has established this baseline by collecting research on a number of metrics relevant to the fund. This research exercise will be repeated during future evaluations, with the updated values compared to the baseline values in order to assess impact.
Since producing this report, responsibility for digital infrastructure has moved to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).