Breezy statements about the necessity of the multivendor, cloud-native 5G network are a thing of the past. These goals remain central in the discussions of the largest operators, but they are more focused on the huge challenges of moving to reality – while many tier two players are watching from the sidelines, evaluating simpler options, such as cloud-hosted services, that may emerge over the coming years. At the 5G Cloud Summit in Madrid, operators were emphasizing the challenges more than the visions in their roadmaps. Enrique Blanco of Telefónica was grittily determined to move towards a multivendor, microservices platform (see previous item) but clear about the hurdles. Deutsche Telekom’s VP of core network development, Franz Seiser, was similarly realistic, telling…