AT&T has embraced the open, virtualized networking idea so wholeheartedly that it has been contributing many of its internal developments into open source efforts, in a bid to drive wide-scale operator support for commoditized white box hardware running network functions in software. The aim is to ensure that the new economics of these open networks do not just deliver savings and agility for one operator, but are extended through the entire supply chain. Among many open initiatives, AT&T has been an originator of ONAP (Open Network Automation Protocol), Open RAN, and Akraino Edge Stack, all housed by the Linux Foundation. It has also contributed developments to Facebookâs Open Compute Project (OCP), which aims to establish commodity economics in the server…