Two Middle Eastern operators have joined the race to claim the ‘first to 5G’ crown (see separate item). But such headlines obscure two important aspects of the dawn of 5G – the large majority of MNOs are more concerned about enhancing 4G for the time being; and most of the early movers are pursuing very conventional use cases, which arguably cannot justify the investment in a new network. The UK is a good example. In general, Europe’s large operators are not aiming to be in the forefront of commercial 5G roll-out. Their priorities are to transform their cost base and quality of service first, with some major projects in virtualization, like Telefonica’s Unica and Unico, and BT’s move to white…