One of the hottest areas of debate about Open RAN is whether it really will usher new suppliers into the mainstream of the MNO supply chain, and whether that new competition and diversity will deliver significant 5G cost savings. But to achieve real transformation of the cost base, it is worth looking beyond the build-outs of the mature mobile markets, and consider how Open RAN ideas are being pursued by emerging market operators, whose TCO challenges are often extremely urgent, even if 5G is years away. An example is that of African regional giant MTN, which has extended its partnership with NuRAN Wireless of Canada, a company that has been in the forefront of Open RAN and Telecom Infra Project…