A highlight of TIP’s annual summit is usually an upbeat commitment from Vodafone (and others) to open RAN architectures. Two years ago, Vodafone and Telefónica named the vendors with the best compliance with their first RFI (request for information), based on TIP principles for open RAN. Last year, Vodafone added the results of a 5G RFI, and pledged that it would open up all its RAN sites, over time, for open platforms, under tender. This year, it was focusing on RFIs for specific elements of the RAN, namely the radio unit hardware. This is an important evolution of Vodafone’s TIP-based open RAN process – which will be influential on others too. It shows the operator delving into the details of…