Rakuten acquires Altiostar for $1 billion in a bid to accelerate global deployment and adoption of cloud native open and interoperable mobile infrastructure, especially open, virtual RAN technology. Futurum’s Ron Westfall examines why the Rakuten’s acquisition of Altiostar provides a massive boost to the Open RAN cause, alters the competitive mix across the entire 5G landscape, and provides a template for CSPs serious about fulfilling their Open 5G mission.
ONF Preps SD-RAN for Open Source 5G Prime Time
ONF’s new SD-RAN project is a work in progress after a flourishing start. Founding members, including especially major operators AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, and NTT, need to demonstrate their mobile ecosystem clout and pull through more support from key industry players such as Open RAN and 5G chipset suppliers. Overall ONF has the ecosystem pull and open source pedigree required to make the SD-RAN project a long-term success.