Verizon has been working on various virtualized RAN (vRAN) architectures since its early deployments of 5G Cloud-RAN in some urban sites, and some enterprise roll-outs. In 5G, it has turned its attention towards more complex disaggregated designs with full cloud infrastructure and the potential to be multivendor (though so far, its publicly announced RAN partners have been the same as for its conventional RAN, notably Samsung). But while the US operator’s commitment to, and definition of, Open RAN remain somewhat hazy, it has made significant progress with vRAN deployment. It said last week that it had built out more than 8,000 vRAN cell sites and aims to increase that number to 20,000 by the end of 2025. Verizon currently has…