Some operators see open industry initiatives like the O-RAN Alliance as a chance to encourage a broad base of suppliers, and contribute knowledge to the common pool via open source cooperation. Others see them mainly as a way to reduce inhouse development cost while reducing reliance on major suppliers – and indeed, putting pressure on them to reduce prices. UK incumbent BT seems to fall into the latter camp. Its chief architect, Neil McRae, told FierceWireless that its membership of the O-RAN Alliance is mainly justified by the access it gains to the group’s work on next generation MIMO antenna arrays. He said: “When you look at O-RAN it’s still not clear to me that’s there’s a really strong single…