Geopolitical shadows inevitably hung over the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, though with Huawei occupying its traditional, outsized space in Hall 1, the effects of US-Chinese trade and security stand-offs were perhaps less obvious than they might have been. But many of the key themes of the show – which tends to set the industry’s tone for the year ahead – reflected that we are in a phase where national politics is helping to shape mobile markets. This was particularly true in the ongoing Open RAN debates. Policy makers in the USA have certainly leapt on the promise of a broad, multivendor ecosystem as a way to rebuild a homegrown telecoms network business and fill the procurement gaps…