Open sesame for mobile radio networks Sign in with LinkedIn 11 March 2021 | Alan Burkitt-Gray Five of the world’s largest telecoms groups have announced an accelerated programme to implement open 4G and 5G this year. Alan Burkitt-Gray looks at why the field has suddenly opened up There’s an old story about waiting ages for a London bus, and then three come along at once. That can equally be applied to open radio access network (open RAN or O-RAN) equipment and projects — schemes to open up, literally, the market for mobile telecoms equipment. A couple of years ago, open RAN was still largely a dream among CTOs of mobile operators, annoyed at being locked for years into one of the big three or four equipment suppliers: Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE.