Open RAN and the Everest of inflated expectations

The Japanese company watched electricity consumption rocket with its buildout of the country's fourth network – and that was before it had many customers.

After several years of talk about the rise of the robots, the industry still seems to be a long way from having a self-driving network.

The arrival of a new and supremely articulate chatbot is a worry for anyone whose job involves the written word, including many in the telecom sector.

The e-commerce giant is reckoned to employ about 1.5 million people worldwide and would be loss-making without its cloud business.

With a legion of vendors now advertising themselves as 'end-to-end' providers, this year is likely to see more open RAN washing.