031: What the hell is OPENRAN? And how will it impact the future of 5G? w/ BlueFire's Rob Jones

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s a new tech industry buzzword floating around that I need to understand better - and that buzzword is OpenRAN.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The reason I need to understand it better is because it seems like it has the capability to transform the way mobile operators purchase, deploy and support their networks. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the old days, it was easy, you rang up one of the network equipment manufacturers, like Nokia, Ericsson or Huawei, and they built your network.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But with OpenRAN, operators can choose from hundreds of vendors and thousands of network configurations. That sounds complex - so I want to understand better what OpenRAN is - and why are so many companies and operators are excited by it. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this podcast, we are joined by the Founder & CEO of the global business advisory firm BlueFire, Rob Jones, for our introduction to OpenRAN.</span></p> <p><strong>Show Notes</strong></p> <p>02:00 Intro to Rob & BlueFire</p> <p>05:00 What the hell is OpenRAN - and why should we care about it?</p> <p>07:30 The transformation from buying from one vendor (e.g. Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei) to the OpenRAN model</p> <p>11:00 OpenRAN promises massive OpEx and CapEx savings, can it deliver on those promises? And if so, what does that mean for the network equipment manufacturers. </p> <p>18:00 Will the reduced costs de-risk 5G network investments and increase deployments?</p> <p>22:00 How will the OpenRAN ecosystem evolve, and what role with the likes of Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei play in it?</p> <p>27:00 The role of the hyperscalers - how Microsoft, Google, AWS and Facebook have jumped on the OpenRAN bandwagon.</p> <p>31:00 OpenRAN's role in Private 5G</p> <p>32:00 What will it take for OpenRAN to be a success?</p> <p>35:00 What are the biggest risks across the OpenRAN ecosystem that could prevent it from living up to the hype?</p> <p>40:00 Exa