Open network initiatives are always interesting and point the way in two important 5G trends – disaggregating the network, and ensuring that the resulting components can be mixed and matched from multiple vendors, to end the lock-ins and limited price competition that have characterized the mobile equipment business until now. However, many organizations publish the specifications but fail to drive further into the large-scale commercial adoption that is essential for success. The ORAN Alliance, which is developing open specs based initially on AT&T code, is guarding against this risk by setting up a test and integration process, backed by significant vendors and operators. This is important to establishing ORAN as something more than a call to arms against proprietary systems,…