It has taken a long time for the open source revolution to reach the mobile operators. 15 years ago, the enterprise data center market had already embraced this approach, and vendors from IBM to Red Hat had adapted to it or created new business models around it. Only now that the MNOs so urgently need to transform their cost base are they, too, pushing for a new open ecosystem, and the vendors are reluctantly having to start on their own transitions. It remains to be seen whether any of the big OEMs manage to do an IBM and turn open source into a weapon rather than a scourge – or whether, as the major operators darkly hint, the network will…