Mavenir updates on open ran base stations with their own app stores

LONDON For mobile network operators looking to upgrade to 5G, the vendor community is dominated by a limited number of end-to-end suppliers. Aside from the obvious economics this paradigm prescribes, in a software-defined, 5G world, this lack of openness can potentially limit agility and innovation.But it doesn’t have to be that way according to John Baker, senior vice president of business development at Mavenir. In a keynote session today at 5G World, Baker provided an update on the development of virtualized and open RAN, describing the potential for a major shake up in the vendor landscape on the back of open interfaces, platforms and ecosystems.I think it’s one of the biggest changes that’s really going to come out in the 5G world, Baker said. Open RAN really is the ability to change the vendor ecosystem. What we’ve seen is a whole bunch of vendor lock-in that has really happened through the standardization processes. Openness is now starting to appear in the industry, which I think is going to bring a lot of new innovation and new vendors into this marketplace.