Fact Check

Strand Consult conducts this fact check as part of its commitment to the freedom of information, to verify facts, and create transparency in internet and telecommunications policymaking. Strand Consult received no compensation to produce this report, nor does it earn revenue from this report which it makes freely available.

Strand Consult regulatory conducts freedom of information requests of governments around the world. Fact checks encompass some of Strand Consult most important work and is highly valued by policymakers, the press, and the public. For example, Strand Consult has performed a series of fact check on the corporate communications of Huawei and the reports it commissions with leading consultancies. Strand Consult has fact checked the statements of Google executives, trade associations, and others.

The ethos of Analysys Mason’s report which attempts to create a narrative of “the interdependence of various stakeholders in the internet ecosystem and the mutually beneficial arrangements that they currently enter into for internet interconnection” remind Strand Consult of the marketing hype conducted by proponents of OpenRAN, the set of tech companies which proffers that interoperable and software-defined technologies can replace telecom network infrastructure equipment, cut hardware costs in half, and offer better security than conventional technologies. Such statements must, to say the least, be taken with a grain of salt. Naturally we would love to see such amazing outcomes, but as Strand Consult demonstrates in a series of fact check reports, reality does not live up to OpenRAN proponents’ claims. Simply put, OpenRAN technologies are not yet 1:1 substitutes for standardized 3GPP network equipment and may never be.