Since changing its Open RAN offering to a licensing model this year, Rakuten Symphony has announced a large deal with operator Zain Kuwait. The pair will collaborate on a pilot project to build an Open RAN network, which could expand to commercial networks in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa. So, while the global Open RAN sector may be slowing, there is still demand from the Middle East. Rakuten Symphony has tempered its Open RAN ambitions, and this year transitioned from selling products and software to operators to becoming a licensor selling software to radio unit (RU) vendors, cloud providers, and systems integrators. The new business model is called the Real Open RAN Licensing Program. The move makes sense,…