As early trailblazers for Open RAN, Dish Wireless in the USA and Rakuten Mobile in Japan were always likely to run into significant teething problems, and they have indeed encountered some headwinds. The two operators have taken similar trajectories, both entering the mobile field to become the fourth MNO in their countries by building 5G networks based on Open RAN technology, in the hope of achieving eventual cost savings and greater flexibility with freedom to choose between multiple vendors for hardware and software. There are, though, some significant differences, with Rakuten building its network almost from scratch and continuing to incur enormous build-out costs, while Dish inherited a 4G network as part of the regulatory settlement allowing T-Mobile to merge…