Standardization and certification for Open RAN has lagged behind technical developments as well as early deployments, which has led to some major operators creating their own ecosystems to ensure interoperability, notable examples being Japan’s Rakuten and Dish Network in the USA. Such a lag is typical of many fields, and can lead to de-facto standards taking hold, with Rakuten already enjoying some success through commercialization of its platform. Standardization is now playing catch-up with field deployments and proceeding in parallel with new projects. A key step came in June 2022 when the O-RAN Alliance announced its Certification and Badging (C&B) project, with the aim of providing facilities around the world where 5G Open RAN equipment can be tested for conformity…