The lads are delighted to welcome special guest Geoff Hollingworth, CMO of Rakuten Symphony, this week. Unsurprisingly they start by discussing all things Rakuten, including its entry into mobile and the creation of Symphony. Everyone on the pod except Scott was at the Big 5G Event in the US last week so they move on to a review of that, before finishing with a quick look at the latest Ericsson news. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

No guest this week but we do have a special member of the audience this as the Telecoms.com empire continues to grow. The guys start by looking at BT’s latest attempt to rescue its sport division and what that says about telcos betting on content. They move on to ponder the matter of how useful millimetre wave spectrum is before concluding with a look at the effect Russia sanctions are having on the industry. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

Time discipline is restored this week by the presence of another grown-up guest and the absence of beer. We’re delighted to welcome Ronan Kelly, CTO of Adtran, and get straight into his day job that focuses on fixed-line networking kit. This inevitably leads to an exploration of the arcane world of optical technology and concludes with a look at the current state of play of the global fibre market. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

All pretence at time discipline is abandoned this week as the lads break the two-hour mark despite not even having a guest. The main reason for this is the decision to lead with Twitter, which opens up several other cans of worms. They eventually move on to Nokia, which recently announced its latest numbers, and conclude by trying to work out what the point of edge computing is. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

The lads are delighted to welcome special guest Neil McRae to the pod this week, who is no less than the Chief Architect for BT. They start by exploring what such a grown-up job title entails, in the process learning a fair bit about what makes BT tick from a strategic point of view. That naturally leads onto topics like Open RAN and 5G, including concerns about the latter not being all its cracked up to be, before they conclude with a look at difficulties faced by some major streaming services. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

Both Iain and Scott were carrying bugs when this was recorded but it will take more than that to keep them from their podding duties. They start by reflecting on Ericsson’s quarterly earnings announcement, specifically concerning the trouble the company is in regarding its historical activities in Iraq. Rumours of a Vodafone UK acquisition yield a chat about telco M&A before they conclude with the then breaking news of Elon Musk bidding to buy the whole of Twitter. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

Scott manages to limp in for an episode with just Iain and, of course, Pierre this week. They start by devoting a whole segment to 5G New Radio, questioning whether it’s all it’s cracked up to be. They move on to the often overlooked matter of backhaul and what it means for one operator to be dependent on another for that sort of thing, before concluding with a look at plans to develop a metaverse for kids. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

We’re delighted to welcome special guest Maria Lema of Weaver Labs this week. Maria’s company develops software designed to decentralize the whole process of accessing network services, using some of the principles and technologies associated with the evolution of Web3, which prompts lots of conversational tangents. They eventually get around to a couple of items from the week’s news, specifically the affect of the use of sanctions on globalization and Huawei’s recent annual report. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

Iain was knackered after a half marathon when we recorded this pod as was Pierre’s audio mixer, which gave up an hour or so into the recording. Nonetheless the lads manage to open with another look at the Russia/Ukraine conflict as it affects the telecoms business, before moving on to discuss the latest update from T-Mobile US. The final segment would have been called Nothing, appropriately, but you’ll never know what we said. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO

The lads are full of the joys of spring, despite everything, this week. They start by reflecting on a Vodafone event they both attended, at which network slicing was a major theme, and question what the point of it is. Iain takes the lead for the middle segment, having written a couple of pieces about Japanese trailblazer Rakuten, before they conclude with the inevitable Scott bugbear, this time the UK online safety bill. Stay up to date with the most important telecoms stories from around the world with the Telecoms.com daily newsletter. Delivered FREE and direct to your inbox every day: http://ow.ly/XPA150KWZmO