Telefonica and AT&T have gained a great deal of attention for their comprehensive virtualization and software-defined networking (SDN) strategies, but they are being joined by a growing band of operators which are coming near the end of their 4G RAN roll-outs and are turning moving their investment priorities to software. Vodafone is an example. Its $27.6bn Project Spring project to upgrade and expands its LTE and fiber networks is just about complete, and its successor is Project Ocean. This is the top priority in the firm’s network strategy now, and focuses on virtualizing a large number of network functions over the coming few years. The head of the NFV/SDN program, David Amzallag, told LightReading: “We have made a lot of…