Organizations advocating for open RAN say it will produce a more competitive ecosystem for radio access network equipment, preventing vendor lock-in, and allowing operators to mix and match equipment. Open RAN also offers the promise of more innovation in the RAN. But leading carriers say it is not easy to deploy commodity hardware and open-source software in brownfield networks. So, what needs to happen before Open RAN is fully embraced and deployed from more Tier-1 operators? When does the business model make sense….and conversely, not? What is the status of all open RAN deployments around the globe today? And what progress can we expect from this space through the remainder of the year – especially in regard to vendor interoperability?
