Microsoft insists it has no desire to compete with mobile operators, despite its acquisition of two cloud-based packet core providers, Metaswitch and Affirmed Networks. These assets give it the ability to provide network-as-a-service to enterprises wanting private 5G, or even to smaller telcos, but the company wrote in a recent filing that it was “committed to working with, not disintermediating, operators”. The comments were made in filings, with the US regulator, about Open RAN, in response to a Notice of Inquiry issued by the FCC on the topic. Microsoft no doubt has its eye on increased business with operators for its Azure cloud platform, potentially to support telco networks as AWS is going to do for Dish Network. Microsoft believes…