The Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF’s) conferences always provide interesting foretastes of how the telecoms network of the future will look, and the recent Connect event in California was no exception. The group set out new platforms including an open source packet core and an evolution of its CORD (Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter) technology. And operators from AT&T to Comcast shared the results of their efforts so far to drive virtualization based on open specifications. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica – three leading lights in the push for open, virtualized platforms to transform the economics of telco networks – provided a joint update on what they call a ‘central office pod’ (CO pod). This is an extension of CORD…