AT&T has scored its first major success in its bid to establish ECOMP, its software-defined network (SDN) platform, as a de facto standard among mobile operators. Orange is testing the platform, building on existing partnerships with AT&T in open source technologies for SDN and NFV (network functions virtualization). There is a real danger of fragmentation in the critical area of orchestration for virtual network functions (VNFs) in an SDN environment. AT&T is taking a leaf out of Google’s book by placing its inhouse technologies into open source, which could spark wide-scale adoption and give it an important role at the heart of a de facto standard ecosystem. In SDN and also in 5G, AT&T aims to rally other MNOs to…