Facebook’s ambition to turn the telco’s network supply chain upside-down is unbridled. At last week’s annual summit for its Telecom Infra Project (TIP), operators, start-ups and other partners were discussing radical ways to build a cellular network that would be as affordable and simple as WiFi. The projects are ticking many of the MNOs’ current hot boxes – sub-$1,000 base stations, open and interoperable networks, artificial intelligence to support extreme automation. The TIP was launched in February 2016 and now has over 500 members. Axel Clauberg, the TIP chairman, who is also VP of innovation at Deutsche Telekom, said: “I strongly believe we need some exponential innovation to master the exponential growth challenge.” Santiago Tenorio, group head of networks strategy…