A leading UK MNO has become the latest operator to jump onboard the potential life raft that is OpenRAN technology. Vodafone announced Europe’s first large-scale field trial of OpenRAN, in partnership with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), pioneering an initiative that should lower the cost of 5G deployment and – they hope – keep them competitive. MNOs are doing all they can to stave off marginalization by cheaper, alternative technologies and services. MNOs have been trembling since the arrival of LPWAN five years ago brought the first legitimate threat to their services. Vodafone’s trial of OpenRAN technology is yet another MNO taking action to ward off becoming a dumb pipe. OpenRAN makes Network Function Virtualization (NFV) more convenient for MNOs…