One of the fears that many operators express about the rise of open RAN architectures is the potential for the market to fragment between several different approaches, which would sacrifice economies of scale and therefore economic benefits. To address this fear, it is important for the key open network organizations, especially the high profile O-RAN Alliance, to work within a broader cooperative framework that includes other bodies focused on the open RAN – such as Open Networking Foundation and Small Cell Forum – as well as more established standards bodies and industry groupings. An important step in this direction was somewhat lost in the pre-holiday lull, but the O-RAN Alliance announced a new co-operation agreement with one of the most…