Germany’s new mobile operator, 1&1, which is owned by broadband operator Drillisch, is to deploy Europe’s first large-scale Open RAN, working with Rakuten. This will be a significant proof point for the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), which is now the foundation of a new commercial business for Rakuten, called Symphony (see separate item). There is much at stake. For 1&1, the aim is to minimize the cost and time to deploy the network and become competitive with the three established operators – Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica O2 – as quickly as possible. That will entail deploying a cloud-based network that should enable a new player to be more agile and cost-efficient than its rivals, and so steal a march…