Open RAN Market Reality Check 2026: Commercial Deployments, Vendor Contracts and Cost Savings

Open RAN is entering a decisive phase in 2026 as global telecom operators move from trials toward larger commercial deployments, but the industry’s original promise of dramatically lower mobile network costs remains only partly proven. Ericsson Open RAN AT&T, Vodafone, Orange and Rakuten Mobile show that Open RAN technology is commercially viable at scale or approaching scale. However, operators are increasingly emphasizing automation, supplier diversity, cloud-native infrastructure, energy effi