O-RAN Is Not The Hard Part. Operating It Is

“Deploying an O-RAN network is an important milestone. Operating it efficiently is where the real challenge begins.”

Over the past few years, O-RAN has evolved from an ambitious vision into a real deployment strategy for many operators around the world. Most conversations still focus on open interfaces, multi-vendor integration, interoperability, and disaggregation. Those are certainly important.

But in my opinion, they are only the beginning. Once the network is live, a different set of questions starts to emerge.

How do you maintain consistent performance across equipment from multiple vendors? How do you coordinate software releases without introducing unexpected behavior? How do you prevent one optimization application from negatively impacting another? How do you scale operational processes without increasing operational complexity?

These are not deployment challenges. They are operational challenges. And they are often much harder to solve.

A disaggregated architecture provides greater flexibility, but it also introduces more interactions, more dependencies, and more decisions that must be managed throughout the network lifecycle.

That is why I believe the long-term success of O-RAN will depend less on deploying open interfaces and more on building intelligent operational frameworks. This is where capabilities such as SMO, rApps, policy management, closed-loop automation, and data governance become essential. Technology alone does not create operational efficiency. A well-designed operating model does.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned that every new technology eventually reaches the same point. The deployment phase ends. Operations become permanent. And operational excellence is ultimately what determines whether the investment delivers lasting value.

Perhaps the biggest opportunity with O-RAN is not simply building a more open network. It is building a network that can continuously adapt, automate, and improve without increasing operational burden. That is a much more ambitious goal. And, in my opinion, it is where the real engineering challenge lies.

Do you think the industry’s biggest O-RAN challenge is still deployment, or has the focus already shifted toward operational excellence?

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