Nokia is moving away from ‘end-to-end’ as a mantra, claiming operators do not want to buy all their wired and wireline, access and transport equipment and software from one provider. In reality, the change of direction is likely to be designed to make Nokia easier to break up and parcel up for potential acquirers, from industry or private equity, that might find the whole firm hard to digest. Elsewhere, challengers to Nokia’s RAN and core crown are becoming more likely to stress ‘end-to-end’, albeit in a narrower context. In the early days of open RAN, supporters talked about the benefits of being able to assemble a network from many different suppliers with endless flexibility. RAN virtual network functions (VNFs) from…