Over The Edge Speculating about Spectrum with Jennifer Fritzsche, Head of North American Telecom and Digital Infrastructure at Greenhill & Co
This episode features an interview between Matt Trifiro and Jennifer Fritzsche, Head of North American Telecom and Digital Infrastructure at Greenhill & Co., which is a leading independent investment bank focused on providing financial advice on significant mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and capital raising to corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments.
Jennifer has a career record of success in providing thought leadership, strategic vision, and business insight leading to significant business growth and shareholder value. She is considered a leading expert in the telecommunications services, cable, data center and tower sectors. Jennifer is seen as a client-focused leader who is a trusted advisor and partner to clients, investors and boards of directors.
In this episode, Jennifer talks about navigating the continually changing world of technology, what aspects of it are missed most, and what is important to consider when strategizing for your business. She shares insight on everything from the edge and the uncabling of cable, to the importance of fiber, wireless, and data centers to shared infrastructures. Jennifer also discusses her recommended strategies for access providers and cloud computing, as well as her top technology trends for 2022.
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Key Quotes:
“Fiber is really the basis of every infrastructure you need. Data centers don't work without fiber related to them. Small cells don't work without fiber related to them. Towers, you need that back haul and front piece, which is the fiber going up. So, in order to carry all this traffic that fiber is critical. The veins in your body carry the blood around. So it's important and really can't be overestimated.”
“A tower is, I think, the best model ever made, because it's such a passive infrastructure. And I always used to joke the only cost to the tower was paying the taxes and sending the guy to mow the lawn underneath because there's really no embedded costs, which is why they're what we call contribution margins or every incremental dollar of revenue, there's like a 90% fall through to the margin. It's unbelievable.”
“I think that you're really going to begin to see growth and the deployment of enterprises wanting to make a walled garden around some of their own enterprise that they don't have to rely solely on like the likes of AT&T and Verizon, but keep the networks as the name would imply private.
“What I would do if I was the carriers, is kind of exactly what they're doing. I would say I need to buy spectrum. It's pay to play. I bought it and now I have to deploy it. And the traditional wireless model is 120% penetration in wireless right now in the US, so you have to pivot to new different areas of growth, private networks, IoT, enterprise; things like that, that can really drive that touch point to enterprise.”
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Timestamps:
02:25 Getting involved in technology
03:17 Navigating Technology
03:50 Current role at Greenhill
06:59 Millimeter Wave and the Uncabling of Cable
08:23 What is a Franchise Territory
13:05 Future of Cable
13:45 Fiber’s Role in Infrastructure
15:05 Blurring of Broadband Infrastructure Lines
18:05 Microsoft and Amazon’s Wireless Strategies
20:55 Access Providers and Data Center Business
24:05 Shared Infrastructure and Tower Territory
26:05 Edge Computing
34:22 Unlicensed Spectrum and CBRS
35:41 Private Wireless
37:25 Where Should Wireless Carriers Spend Their Money?
38:55 Best Strategy for Cloud Computing and Wireless
42:35 Spectrum and Shared Infrastructure
44:15 Top Technology Trends for 2022
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Sponsor:
Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting DellTechnologies.com/SimplifyYourEdge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.
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