Sushil Rawat, TELUS (00:20):
Our strategic imperatives are simple. Most important aspect of adopting Open RAN for us is vendor lock-in. We have experience of two major network swaps in the last 10 years, which is a very, very cost intensive and painful process. So it was very, very important for us that we deploy a technology architecture that is open and that does not lock us in with particular supplier. With Open ran, we have capability of changing our technology architecture and going from one generation of technology to another generation of technology without much of a truck roll. So that's a very, very meaningful motivation for us to adopt Open RAN. On top of that, in North America we have very different spectrum mix. If you compare with the rest of the world, especially in Canada, our geography and our population density is very different from the rest of the world. So we cannot really use off the shelf products from traditional suppliers, which are high runner for the global market. However, our needs are slightly different. We need different kind of radios, different kind of spectrum allocation on those radios. So with Open Ran, we have capability to build a product or a technology that fits our network need and not just what you get from traditional suppliers. So those two are very, very important motivation for us to adopt Open ran.

Fernando Castro-Cristin, HPE (01:53):
First we need to talk about the vendor lock-in. That's something that we need to avoid. And the answer is like in the name, Open. When you open, you have new technologies, new companies, and that competition creates the new way of adapting to the network. And the network needs to be way more agile. Let's not forget the resiliency of the supply chain. We saw during the Covid time that if you only have one source, well you lock to the capabilities of that source to supply. So Open Ran addresses all those topics and those are the answers that all the industries committed to address in a more efficient way.

Stephen Wiktorski, Samsung (02:35):
Operators have been on a transformational journey in their networks over the last number of years moving towards cloud native technologies, towards software-defined networks and away from proprietary hardware systems. And the next logical step in that transformation is to transform the RAN and move towards COTs servers and move towards open software systems. And that's exactly what v-ran and Open Ran provides you. And when you look at the transformational impacts that AI is going to have. In order to harness AI, you need access to data. And the way you get access to data is through open APIs. And that's another key feature that Open Ran and v-ran brings.

Robert Curran, Appledore Research (03:11):
The operators who started Open Ran really wanted greater speed, flexibility, and choice in how they updated their networks. The ran market had become heavily consolidated into just a few suppliers, which was limiting competition and innovation. The early front runners in RAN needed to be disruptors in their markets. Open ran gave them a way to accelerate rollouts and be seen really as a different kind of telco. There's another group of operators who had been directed by government to swap out existing RAN vendors equipment. They look to open ran as a way to mitigate the impact of any future swap outs and to build diversity into their supply chain. But all of this is in the context of looking for ways to reduce costs without compromising quality or security, and also to be agile, responding to evolving customer needs and identifying growth opportunities.