Operators that are deeply engaged in Open RAN development and trials are starting to share some concrete results from their work, which will build up over the course of the year into a valuable body of knowledge about the platform and its likely benefits and challenges. On a recent webcast by the O-RAN Alliance, AT&T shared some progress on the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), probably the defining element of the architecture for operators that see O-RAN as a way to facilitate the migration to virtualized, automated networks, rather than merely as a way to introduce open fronthaul interfaces to enable multivendor physical network deployments. AT&T was an early mover in RIC trials, having contributed some of the seed…