The past 15 years have been ones of a shrinking vendor base in mobile networks. Operators whose governments wish to restrict Chinese equipment in 5G build-outs complain bitterly that they will be left with a choice of only two global and long-standing suppliers, Nokia and Ericsson, with Samsung as a possible counterweight. But the argument is over-simplified. In some respects, as the 5G network transforms to new virtualized and disaggregated architectures, the supply chain has not looked as diverse for many years. This is not really about the wave of specialist vendors pinning their colors to the O-RAN mast. Initiatives like the O-RAN Alliance and Telecom Infra Project are greatly to be welcomed as they show the way to a…