One critical success factor for 5G will be a transformation of its cost base. One important contribution to this would come from a more open, commoditized, WiFi-like ecosystem for 5G devices and components. The move towards such products, from home WiFi equipment to low cost, white box routers, has often been driven by non-traditional cellular players – Intel, trying to push its technologies into the closed mobile market; suppliers moving across from the WiFi industry; start-ups. But now there are signs that, for all the conflicts of interest that a low cost hardware ecosystem would pose for the big cellular vendors, they are being forced by price pressures to go down that path too. Nokia, for instance, has begun early…