While US lawmakers lobby for state aid for small mobile network vendors (see below), two of Europe’s big operator groups are providing a far bigger boost for alternative suppliers by embarking on large-scale open RAN projects. Telefónica and Vodafone have both been major supporters of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), issuing a high profile RFI (request for information) for open networks in 2018, and following up with a series of trials and, now, commercial plans. The Spanish telco’s UK arm, O2, says it will deploy open technology both for urban small cells and rural networks, to improve its cost base and foster a wider supply chain. It will support both ORAN Alliance and TIP OpenRAN specs, which cover common fronthaul…