Over the last two years, the hype cycle for Open RAN has been firing on all cylinders fueled by the first open cloud-native network, and global geopolitics. Despite all the excitement, little progress has been made on the commercial front. Brownfield mindshare and presence are yet to be realized amid early-stage greenfield deployments of open RAN networks, most notably Dish and 1&1. What is the state of Open RAN?
neXt Curve is joined by Foong King Yew, renowned telecoms industry analyst and strategy consultant to discuss the following:
- What is the latest in the world of Open RAN? – Leonard and Foong trade thoughts on the recent headlines that matter in the world of Open RAN. We discuss the important plays that will potentially shape the future of Open RAN and define its context of value near term and long.
- What is the state of the Open RAN nation? – POC hell or disruption? This is the real question. Disruption is not a declaration. It is an outcome of actual industry impact and dominating influence that brings about structural change. Open RAN has a long way to go to realize such effect. Leonard and Foong debate the state of Open RAN. Will the movement be able to get out of trial and POC purgatory?
- What are the ground truths that the movement is facing? – Is Open RAN lower cost? The jury is out with limited deployments among tier-1 operators to prove the case. Leonard and Foong discuss some of the realities that are biting the assumptions that the Open RAN vendor community has hung their hopes on as well as the realities that present real opportunities for progressing Open RAN.
- What can we expect in Open RAN adoption next year? – Leonard and Foong debate the future of Open RAN in 2022 as the geopolitical agendas put pressure on the movement and ecosystem to deliver against substantial promises and as the urgency to scale challenge the desire of the vendor community to preserve the integrity of the standard and the spirit of the Open RAN vision.
