This is an introduction to the podcast version of Sparring Partners from Monica Paolini, the podcast host on what Sparring Partners is about, its approach and its format. I talk about the reasons why I am starting a weekly podcast, QuickFire, which will coexist with the longer DiveIn Sparring Partners that you may be familiar with. I have uploaded …

A conversation with Markus Kümmerle, Deutsche Telekom and CAMARA, Daryl Schoolar at Recon Analytics and Monica Paolini at Senza Fili on the value, benefits and challenges of APIs APIs have been around for a long time, but in the last couple of years have become one of the brightest beacons of monetization, even though their role is much wider than …

In this final Sparring Partners on AI and automation, we heard the operator's perspective from Jennifer Yates about AT&T's experience to date, ongoing activities, and future roadmap to adopt AI-driven automation and eventually move to autonomous networks. Jennifer shared her deep, first-hand experience in running highly innovative projects to manag…

In network operations, we are always looking for areas for improvement. How should we manage applications to best serve end customers? How can we use end-to-end visibility of application and service performance to end customers, anomaly detection for automated pattern discovery and prediction to improve quality of experience? How should we utilize …

AI will change the way we operate telecom networks. But what’s the best way to get there? How should we introduce AI to get the benefits it promises but avoid duplication, conflicts among different AI models, and undesired outcomes? How do we know AI models will deliver what we expect? In this Sparring Partners, Per Kangru and Takai Eddine Kennouch…

Most of the time, we talk about how AI, ML and GenAI change the way we run and operate networks, enable automation, tame complexity, and improve efficiency. They also change the way we – the humans in telecoms – operate, the skills we need, and how we deal with AI-based platforms. This will require profound changes and our ability to meet the cultu…

AI-driven automation is going to change the way we run our networks end-to-end, from the access in the RAN all the way to the core, from the edge infrastructure to the cloud. To get there, we need the right silicon and platforms. Are we there yet? In this Sparring Partners, we talked with Cristina Rodriguez at Intel about the network transformation…

It is not coincidental that networks are evolving towards openness and automation at the same time. Openness brings flexibility and choice, but also increased complexity. Automation, aided by cloudification and AI, enables operators to manage complexity and benefit from the flexibility in the network. Together, openness and automation change the wa…

Intelligent applications and generative AI will help operators increase the value of their already installed and new networks. By using network-specific knowledge, they can empower operators with trusted solutions that increase network efficiency. In this Sparring Partners with Blake Hlavaty, Director of Global Network Software Offers at Fujitsu, w…

The Middle East is emerging as a hot area for digital transformation, driven by R&D funding, limited resistance from legacy infrastructure and organizational culture, and a desire to get a more prominent role in the global market. Tareq Amin, CEO at Aramco Digital, was our Sparring Partner and talked about his recent move from Japan, where he was t…

There is much talk about how GenAI will change how we operate and automate telco networks, but there is also much uncertainty about GenAI’s potential, challenges, opportunities and adoption models. We talked with Anbu Ganesh, Business Director of Innovation & Business Development at VIAVI, to get the insider’s view on what GenAI has started to deli…

Recent announcements by AT&T, 1&1 and Deutsche Telekom indicate an inflection point in the readiness for open RAN commercial deployments, but also an emerging new approach in vendor selection. In this Sparring Partners, I talked to John Baker at Mavenir, Geoff Hollingworth at Rakuten Symphony and Aji Ed at Nokia about how vendors approach disaggreg…

Operators are getting ready to deploy open RAN in commercial, live networks. Each operator is defining its strategy and flavor of open RAN, its pace, and its vendor ecosystem. Yet, they all need to ensure that the open RAN architecture and topology they choose work as expected. Are the equipment, the software, the platforms and the applications int…

Automation is at an inflection point. It is no longer a future aspiration, it is something that operators have started to implement, both in their new and legacy networks. They see the opportunity for cost savings and increased efficiency, but also the risks and challenges automation brings. In this Sparring Partners, Per Kangru at VIAVI shares how…

RIC promises to make open RAN (and traditional RAN too) more efficient. But when? Are we ready to deploy RIC? And what RIC functionality is available now and what should we expect over the next few years? How dependent are open RAN deployments on RIC? In this Sparring Partners, Simona Marinova at Bell Canada and Monica Paolini at Senza Fili gave an…

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) open the way to one of the most fascinating technological advances: passive transmission. RIS turns reflection from a source of interference to an entirely new way to transmit the wireless signal that is well suited to the dense, high-traffic, high-obstruction areas where the need for capacity is the highe…

The 6GHz band has become prime estate: a large amount of spectrum that can be safely shared with incumbents and used for indoor connectivity and densification in high-traffic areas. Understandably, everybody wants to use it and protect their access to it: mobile operators, other service providers, enterprises, public entities, and everybody in thei…

We are still in the 5G and 5G Advanced phase, but it is good to take a peek at where 6G may take us in the evolution towards an open RAN – and possibly beyond what we now call Open RAN. In this Sparring Partner, I talked with Ravi Sinha at O-RAN ALLIANCE about multiple RAN evolution paths from 5G/5G-A to 6G that will open the RAN beyond the frontha…

We had many Sparring Partners on energy efficiency in wireless, but none was on Wi-Fi. This is a glaring omission since Wi-Fi accounts for the majority of wireless traffic – in most countries, it hovers at around 80% of wireless traffic. Yet, there is much less data (and debate) on Wi-Fi energy efficiency than on 5G or LTE – and there are reasons f…