The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has issued its third Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO 3) under the $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund, making up to $450 million available for private 5G deployments that explicitly serve industrial verticals - including manufacturing - while mandating adherence to open interoperability standards and, implicitly, the workforce training necessary to operate them.
Background
The Innovation Fund was authorized under the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and funded through the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Its core premise addresses a structural problem in the wireless equipment market: traditional Radio Access Networks (RAN) rely on closed, proprietary hardware and software from single vendors - a configuration that increases costs, constrains competition, and limits supply chain resilience, according to NTIA. The agency has awarded over $550 million across 35 projects through its first two funding rounds. NOFO 3, announced in December 2024, represents the program's most direct pivot toward industrial use cases, including manufacturing, utilities, and mining.
The Department of Defense has pursued a parallel track. Its 2024 private 5G deployment strategy, signed by acting DoD CIO Leslie Beavers on October 16, 2024, calls for accelerated deployment of DoD-owned networks using Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) principles - emphasizing interoperable radio standards, hardware-agnostic networks, and cloud integration - and instructs acquisition decisions to prioritize O-RAN ecosystem approaches, according to the Federal News Network.
Grant Requirements: Open Standards and Vendor Qualification
NOFO 3 is structured around two specific research focus areas (SRFAs). SRFA 1 targets software solutions that leverage Open RAN innovations - specifically the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) - to generate measurable value for industry verticals such as manufacturing. SRFA 2 targets automation software that reduces the cost and complexity of integrating multi-vendor network environments. According to NTIA's published NOFO, SRFA 1 awards are expected to range from $24 million to $50 million per project, while SRFA 2 awards are expected to range from $9 million to $18 million.
The open-standards mandate is a hard eligibility condition, not an incentive. Equipment, supplies, and services from vendors on federal restricted or national security lists are explicitly ineligible costs. Compliant solutions must conform to specifications set by recognized bodies - the O-RAN Alliance, 3GPP, the Telecom Infra Project, and the Open-RAN Software Community - as stated in the NOFO's statutory objectives under 47 U.S.C. § 906. The O-RAN Alliance's certification process requires testing at an approved Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC), covering conformance, interoperability, performance, and security across radio units, distributed units, and centralized units, according to VIAVI Solutions.
Cost-sharing requirements also carry procurement weight. NTIA requires a minimum 30% cost match for SRFA 1 and 20% for SRFA 2, meaning mid-sized manufacturers seeking grant capital must commit capital expenditure toward compliant, multi-vendor infrastructure. All applicants must submit quarterly milestone plans, and the period of performance cannot exceed five years, per the NOFO.
The workforce dimension is embedded in Open RAN's operational demands. Unlike legacy proprietary deployments, Open RAN's disaggregated architecture - which decouples hardware from software across standardized interfaces - requires plant-level operational technology (OT) teams to manage multi-vendor integration, monitor open interfaces for security vulnerabilities, and perform ongoing interoperability validation. More than 90 applications requesting nearly $3 billion were submitted for NOFO 3, according to NTIA's May 2025 announcement, indicating strong industry appetite that will raise the bar for demonstrated OT readiness in competitive proposals.
Outlook
NTIA intends to make awards on a rolling basis following the April 16, 2025 application deadline. A fourth NOFO is planned; NTIA has indicated it will build on NOFO 3 insights and input from a forthcoming Innovation Fund Federal Advisory Committee. Legislators have also reintroduced the Open RAN Outreach Act - introduced on March 11, 2025 by Representatives Carter and Hudson - which, if enacted, would require NTIA to provide technical assistance to smaller network operators navigating open-standards grant participation, a provision with direct relevance to mid-market manufacturers.
