It isn’t really “open source,” the way that phrase is accurately applied to software development. The founding principle of the O-RAN Alliance (where “O-RAN” stands for “Open Radio Access Network”) is for enough stakeholders in the future of wireless communications to agree upon 1) the identities and functions of the individual components of a wireless network and, 2) the requirement for just one, non-proprietary means of making these components interoperable in a telecom system. That seems noble enough.
It also isn’t really 5G Wireless. For the O-RAN concept to work, it must make itself downwardly compatible with as many pre-existing networks as possible. Theoretically, a 2G GSM system should, at some point, be capable of being retrofitted with O-RAN architecture.
