The RIC, which controls and optimizes RAN functions, is a critical component that ultimately allows service providers to bring innovative new services and features to market faster. The RIC brings intelligence, agility, and programmability to the RAN, enabling the creation of third-party applications that automate and optimize RAN operations at scale while supporting innovative use cases. The RIC helps mobile operators reduce both infrastructure and operational costs, improve network performance, and increase business agility. Use cases such as quality of service/quality of experience (QoS/QoE) optimization and traffic steering improve service performance for personalized and custom experiences, while RAN efficiency use cases can lower operations costs by reducing energy consumption. The RIC can also help mobile operators build new revenue streams with personalized services, network slicing, and indoor location tracking capabilities.