“It's a massive mindset change because it's not about telco network technologies anymore. It's about the cloud," Analysys Mason's Gorkem Yigit said.

“We’ve kind of seen a pause in spend on these due to some macroeconomic issues that are going on in the market,” TBR's Michael Soper said.

“If you don't get the good relationship going you're going to push something for the OT people that they don't want," Omdia's Pablo Tomasi warned.

But abstracting away complicating layers is key to helping overburdened IT teams.

“There will be multiple providers, and in fact as far as we’re concerned, we want there to be multiple providers," AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said.

CFO Pascal Desroches this week said the carrier is seeing progress toward attracting more potential open radio access network equipment vendors.

Analyst firms expect billions-of-dollars in opportunity.

Spectrum and network technology will play a part.

The certification also highlights growing interest in peering connections handling increased traffic from artificial intelligence services.

Verizon was using some of Casa Systems' 5G-based systems to power its cloud-native operations.

Following a recent seed funding, Flexnode has its eyes on further deployments, both in the US and internationally

The addition includes Cradlepoint routers, industrial-grade adapters and its NetCloud management layer.

“This is something we felt we were going to have to do anyway, something we thought we needed to do for the industry,” Dell's Dennis Hoffman said.

O2 Telefónica’s move to start porting live 5G traffic into a public cloud environment hosted by Amazon Web Services and Nokia marks a significant step.

“We see this in terms of stabilization as one leg of the stool,” Hughes COO Paul Gaske said.

Private 5G progress remains paced for the most successful, poor for others.

Vendors have not been shy about expressing their exasperation in the continued slowdown in telecommunication equipment spend.

Rival AT&T is showing enterprise traction, while Dish Network is pushing off market plans until at least next year.

Though many of the hot topics at this year’s show were familiar, AI is new buzzword in town

Standards bodies have embedded a lot of potential for private 5G and it's just a matter of teasing out what is really needed.

Will its extensive spectrum portfolio be its financial lifebuoy?

The carrier completed first-phase certification of Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud to run on the Verizon Business Private 5G Network offering.

A trio of Asia-Pacifc-based operators are leading the way, according to Omdia.

While most run away from storms, network operators have no such option, their networks are critical infrastructure for those in desperate need of help