This week we bring you the pod live (or at least it was when we filmed it) from 5G World 2018 in London – an event that tested the stamina of our youngest team member. Scott reflects on apparent sentiment that everyone should stop moaning about 5G business cases and just get on with it, while Iain notes the downbeat current phase of the 5G hype cycle, Jamie laments a relative lack of ambition from European operators and guest podder Elliott reflects on living the 5G dream. 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, Jamie and Iain ponder the significance of haircuts at the top of the corporate food chain, with the luxuriantly coiffured Gavin Patterson reaching the end of his tenure at BT and the often mulleted Hans Vestberg set to take over at Verizon. Iain and Jamie then reminisce about some swanky lunches they both attended with Vodafone and Orange, and declare a winner. Scott finishes with a look at a cheeky move by Ofcom to give UK operators a financial haircut. 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 and Jamie are joined by Ray from Light Reading this week, who can barely contain his excitement at the prospect of talking about regulation. The guys reflect on the entirely predictable SNAFU that has been the first week of GDPR, before reflecting on Nokia’s more recent devices misadventures following the failed Withings experiment. Ray concludes with look at where we are now regarding virtualization which is so authoritative that the other two wisely decide not to try to pick holes in it. 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 usual suspects are back after a week of globetrotting to industry trade shows. Iain and Scott reflect on their time at Digital Transformation World and discuss whether or not telcos should even bother digitally transforming themselves. At the same time Jamie was in the US at the Big Communications Event, at which he heard about how Jio is going to continue transforming the Indian market. They then move on to the transformation of ZTE from a thriving company to a dying one, and maybe back again, and conclude with the subtle transformation of Deutsche Telekom into a small company. 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

Jamie leads the pod this week, fresh from and appearing on proper telly to talk about BT axing a bunch of jobs, and he is clearly still buzzing. We then move onto Iain, who hasn’t even been on YouTube this week and has instead been analysing Vodafone’s acquisition of a bunch of Liberty Global stuff. When Scott gets his turn he laments the catastrophic situation ZTE has found itself in and then finishes off with his trademark fearmongering about AI, with a focus on audio. 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 and Jamie once more risk exposing their dilettantism this week as they welcome Gabriel Brown – an Analyst, no less, from Heavy Reading. They start with a look at the longest courtship in telecoms: T-Mobile US and Sprint, who have finally decided to make honest operators of each other. They move onto 5G – one of Gabriel’s core areas – and he becomes so animated in response to a random question from Pierre that he won’t stop banging the microphone. They conclude with some breaking news (at least it was at the time) concerning the battle for the soul of TIM (Telecom Italia) between Vivendi and Elliott. 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

Jamie and Scott are joined by Iain from Light Reading this week and they start by discussing the pros and cons of becoming a communications-slash-content provider. Is convergence a sound business strategy or is it better to just stick with what your company’s best at? Is it good for you to consume a lot of VOD? Not during a podcast it would seem as Iain and Scott are forced to improvise while Jamie literally goes for a slash. Unperturbed they move onto the ongoing subject of Chinese vendors getting a hard time from western authorities, with ZTE coming under so much fire it might have to slash its operations significantly. They conclude with a look Amazon, which thanks to a convergent strategy for its Prime premium service has managed to acquire over 100,000 subscribers. The guys speculate about why Amazon has decided to release this data but conclude it’s unlikely to slash its heavy investment anytime soon. 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 pod regulars are joined by Ray from Light Reading once more this week. They start with a discussion about how inadequate the policing of the digital economy is, with legislators and regulators struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change. Jamie feels so strongly about it that he’s moved to frankly shocking profanity. He then composes himself long enough to tell us about the tension between national and state-level attitudes to technology in the US, allowing Ray to step in and restore some decorum to the exchange before Peterborough gets some harsh treatment. They conclude by observing snowballing interest in automation across the telecoms industry, which Ray uses as an opportunity to shamelessly plug Light Reading stuff. 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

This week only Scott and Jamie managed to make it into the studio after the long-weekend of chocolate, countryside walks and beer. This week sees the end of the 5G auction with the guys wondering why Ofcom feels it can charge so much, Facebook just continues to offer easy pickings for the technology journalists of the world and we finish off with a look at how to do M&A correctly… 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 and Jamie are joined by Ray from Light Reading and go straight into the big story of the week: Cambridge Analytica. The guys more or less agree that it’s ultimately all about how little control we have over our personal data and wonder what can be done about it. More importantly they also speculate about which Star Wars characters they are. Ray steers conversation onto 5G for a change and stresses that it’s all very well banging on about clever radio technology, but unless you deal with the unsexy stuff none of it is going to happen. Finally Jamie manages to find a window in his cryptocurrency trading schedule to tell us about his chat with Vodafone’s UK CEO, who was refreshingly honest about the challenges he faces. 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