For smart start-ups in an emerging area of technology such as Open RAN, the biggest challenge is often surviving the gap between initial excitement and large-scale deployments, especially when larger players rush in to capitalize on developments those start-ups have pioneered. For some, this leads to acquisition by one of the big players, as Irish integrator Aspire Technology has found, having been snapped up by NEC. For others, there may be a harder slog, and crises along the way, as small cell and O-RAN leading light Parallel Wireless is experiencing, with a sharp reduction in its workforce. Aspire is a less well-known name in Open RAN than Parallel, but it has been involved in several deployments as an integrator…