Telecoms.com Podcast

The absence of a guest resulted in a total loss of conversational discipline this week. A meandering pod touches on the increasingly likely merger of Vodafone and Three in the UK, the semiconductor industry as it affects telecoms and upheaval in the world of digital media. This episode is a must for fans of the stream-of-consciousness ramblings of middle-aged telecoms hacks.

The podcast finally gains legitimacy from the inclusion of a special guest who has a book out. That guest is Professor Sean Ennis and they start by discussing his book – Internet Empire. Sean’s academic focus is competition policy so they move on to some telecoms-specific issues in that area, before concluding with a look at how Malaysia has found itself in the middle of the geopolitical battle of wills between the US and China.

The pod is delighted to welcome back former Chief Network Architect at BT Neil McRae, who starts by telling us about his new job. They move on to talk about 6G, with Scott and Iain having recently attended a conference on the matter, then get a report from Neil on a UK telecoms investment initiative he is part of, and conclude by trying to unravel the intricacies of the latest innovations in the Radio Access Network and why, if at all, we should care.

After a short break the pod returns with special guest Tom Bennett from Freshwave. His company is all about neutral host infrastructure, so they start with a look at that market. Inevitably, Open RAN works its way into the conversation which, in turn provides an opportunity to discuss interesting startup EdgeQ. The situation between the US and China is never far from telecoms chat these days either, and they conclude with a look at how that conflict is ramping further.

It’s the Easter holidays so we had to record this episode over Zoom because Pierre is on his travels. After another AI Armageddon tangent, the guys start by reflecting on a recent UK decision to investigate its public cloud market over competition concerns, which coincides with their broader concerns in this area. They move on to recap a recent visit to Vodafone, at which it showed off its energy-saving efforts, before concluding with a review of some recent corporate shenanigans.

The pod is delighted to welcome back media technology Analyst Ed Barton this week. Following a refreshingly short preamble, they get straight into Ed’s area of expertise, which includes tangents onto video streaming, social media and AI Armageddon. They then reflect on a day out Iain and Scott had with Rakuten Symphony before concluding by reviewing Huawei’s recent annual report.

Scott, Iain and Pierre get some rare quality time together on this week’s guest-free pod. Inevitably the preamble is somewhat protracted but they eventually get on to reviewing the latest news surrounding BT, including some recent media coverage that landed its CEO in hot water. They move on to discuss the implications of a ban in Chinese 5G kit in Germany before concluding with a look at the competitive implications of the vRAN movement.

Discussions on challenges in 5G monetization, slow progress in deployment, transitioning to cloud-native core, balancing competition in European telecoms, market dynamics in Latin America, AR/VR applications, AI in network management, shift to AI hype, and insights on OpenRAN technology

The guys shot their traditional special podcast from the show floor of Mobile World Congress again this year. Ericsson was kind enough to find them a space to record, so Scott and Iain start by chatting to Peter Linder from that company. Later they bring on Omdia analyst Dario Talmesio and veteran journalist George Malim to hear about their experiences at this year’s show.

The lads a joined by returning special guest, telecoms Analyst Dean Bubley, for this episode recorded early in the hope that people listen to it on their way to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They start by asking Dean why he’s not a fan of the show, before getting into the major themes those of us who will be attending expect to explore. Scott’s attempts to impose conversational discipline on the pod fail miserably but then again, it is a two-hour flight.