Telefónica is one of the ‘Gang of Five’ large European operators that threw their weight behind Open RAN, and the chance of a localized ecosystem, when they signed a memorandum of understanding in 2020. Each of them – the others are Orange, Deutsche Telekom, TIM and Vodafone – has embarked on trials and provided deployment commitments of various levels of vagueness. But each has also expressed caution about when the technology will be ready for primetime in the urban macro network. Vodafone has been the most aggressive about setting quotas for Open RAN deployments by 2026, and has some commercial sites running, but has acknowledged that the focus will be on rural, suburban and small cell networks for some…