The process of virtualizing the telco network has proved longer and tougher than many had hoped, and is still in a very embryonic state for more operators – apart from a few Asian frontrunners which have invested in very hand-crafted systems like SK Telecom’s. Other operators have been waiting for full standards and open interfaces to reduce the cost, risk and complexity of running their core, transport and RAN network functions in software on commoditized hardware. That longer-than-hoped wait will delay some of the hoped-for cost benefits of 5G, since most early 5G deployers will start rolling out their systems using conventional architecture, especially in the RAN. Verizon, however, claims to be making significant progress towards a virtualized RAN (vRAN).…