The UK government made several Open RAN announcements last week, taking a cautious line on mandating the emerging technologies, but offering funding for 15 new projects focused on open network innovations. The Johnson administration issued its policy statement on vendor diversity, the result of a significant review by a taskforce set up for the purpose in the wake of the UK decision to bar Huawei from 5G networks and some other infrastructure. However, the final statement was considerably diluted, compared to the recommendations of that taskforce. The government set a target that 35% of UK mobile traffic should travel over “open and interoperable” RANs by 2030. Not only is this a cautious timescale compared to those set by the more…