Open RAN has crossed from pilot to commercial scale. In 2026, the operators that bet biggest — AT&T, Rakuten and Deutsche Telekom — are hitting deployment milestones that signal a durable shift.
AT&T’s 14 Billion Dollar Overhaul
Anchored by a five-year, up-to-14 billion dollar Ericsson deal, AT&T has passed 50% of its radio swap and targets 70% open-capable traffic by end of 2026. It has completed the first Open RAN call on live network using third-party radios (Ericsson and Fujitsu 1Finity) and deployed its first third-party rApp on production.
Rakuten Proves the Economics
Rakuten Mobile reached 10 million subscribers in December 2025 and posted its first full-year EBITDA profit. Operating roughly 350,000 cells from seven radio vendors, it claims about 40% lower capex and 30% lower opex than a proprietary RAN — the strongest proof yet that Open RAN can be viable.
Deutsche Telekom Scales Across Europe
DT has deployed Open RAN across 3,000+ German sites (Nokia and Fujitsu) and opened a tender for 30,000 more across Europe — potentially the continent’s largest deployment.
Lessons and Limits
The performance gap to integrated RAN has narrowed to 5-10%. But integration complexity, 15-20% higher power draw and a still-partly-proprietary RIC remain real. Open RAN is also the proving ground for the cloud-native, multi-vendor supply chain that 6G will inherit.