Special Report: Open networks Amid the deluge of Open RAN-related news and chatter that has characterized the mobile industry for the past couple of years, it is easy to forget that, while the RAN may indeed be the biggest element of mobile operator spending, it does not make an open network on its own. At its most basic, Open RAN provides interfaces that allow operators to choose radio/antenna units from multiple suppliers, none of them necessarily also providing the baseband. But while that would certainly be a valuable development for operators, fulfilling the hopes that were initially invested in CPRI, it would not go far to achieving an end-to-end, cloud-based network, as modelled by new MNO entrants Rakuten Mobile…