Telco in 20

Hey, look at that—I’m a guest on a podcast! I recently joined host Robert Curran and principal analyst John Abraham on the Appledore Research Podcast, and now I’m bringing that episode to you here. We talk about everything from the state of charging in telecom to CLOUD CITY’s rockstar takeover of Ericsson’s space at MWC21—a takeover that included an ACTUAL rock star. Click play to hear our convers...

In 2020, award-winning British MVNO giffgaff decided to go all-in on the public cloud with AWS. The bold move sped its software release process by 1000x, allowing it to focus on what matters: its members. Now the company is an all-star player in customer service and cloud innovation.  In this episode, giffgaff’s Chief Operating and Technology Officer Steve McDonald shares the inside story about ho...

Telco stocks used to be Wall Street darlings, but in recent years have become stable dividend plays for grandpa investors. Can they return to their former glory?  Today’s guest, Recurve Capital Founder Aaron Chan, has well-informed thoughts on what the industry needs to do to restore its shine. He’s at the forefront of investment strategies and market trends in telecom, and not surprisingly, he se...

Telcos make it hard for enterprise customers to negotiate deals for affordable connectivity. A few innovative tech firms are building their businesses around making things easier. One of them is Gigs, which buys pre-negotiated connectivity and offers easy APIs to allow enterprise software developers to create and sell their own voice and data plans. In this episode, Hermann Frank, co-founder and C...

Forward thinking, innovative companies are using the public cloud to deliver easy-to-use telco software that reduces costs and speeds deployments. Today’s guest, Erlend Prestgard, is the CEO and co-founder of one of these visionary businesses, Working Group Two. His team has built a multi-tenant, public-cloud-native, mobile core running on AWS—something naysayers have said today’s tech couldn’t su...

In 2015, Hawaii-based MVNO Mobi decided to give up managing the radio components of its network in favor of focusing on creating awesome services for subscribers. To accomplish this, it needed to become a thick MVNO with its own mobile core, so it started working with Working Group Two to implement a public-cloud-native, mobile core running on AWS. For this episode, Mobi CEO Justen Burdette joins...

The amount the hyperscalers spend on the public cloud is staggering. It requires a $100-billion+ buy-in to be considered a serious player. Today’s guest, Charles Fitzgerald, tracks hyperscaler CapEx spending each quarter on his Platformonomics blog.  He parses earning reports to gain insight into who’s putting their money where their mouth is.  Charles recently published his annual 2022 retrospect...

So much has changed with the public cloud and telco since I created CLOUD CITY at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021. Back then, most industry folks said that the public cloud might be a good fit for enterprise IT and BSS workloads, but considering it for network workloads was an entirely different matter. Fast-forward two years, and now my question for the industry is, “are there any telco workload...

On March 1, I presented a keynote— my third in a row!— at MWC’s inaugural MVNO Summit. It was standing-room-only with leaders from digital brands, MVNOs, and MVNEs who were eager to learn how intelligent, SaaS software (like Totogi!) can help them delight customers and grow ARPU. We captured the talk on video, and I’ve turned it into this podcast. Listen now to hear about:  Why MVNOs need to start...

I spend a lot of time talking to telcos about how public cloud technology can help them delight subscribers and boost ARPU. Ahmed Khattak, founder and CEO of US Mobile, knows exactly what I’m talking about. He built the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) natively on the public cloud from day one. In this episode, we talk about his vision for the company and how it benefits from its public-clou...

Mobile World Congress 2023 is right around the corner, running from February 27 through March 2. This is the biggest event of the year for the telco industry, a place where the movers and shakers come together to discuss policy, see innovative ideas from exhibitors, and get deals done. In this episode, I talk with Lara Dewar, chief marketing officer for the GSMA, which puts together MWC each year....

Telcos have a ton of subscriber data at their fingertips, yet most never tap its value. MobileX is ready to show them the way. It’s using AI and subscriber usage insights to price personalized plans with transparency, and hoping to build trust between telco and customers in the process. In this episode, I talk to MobileX CEO and serial entrepreneur, Peter Adderton. He’s going to tell us what Mobil...

Telcos around the world are signing strategic deals with hyperscalers, setting big goals for public cloud transformation, and finding ways to cross the finish line. A great example is TELUS, which signed a 10-year strategic agreement with Google Cloud and is on a path to become a cloud-native organization.  For this episode, I talk with Hesham Fahmy, chief information officer at TELUS, about how t...

I had some amazing conversations this year, but none grabbed more ears than my in-person interview with DISH Wireless Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer Marc Rouanne. He offered a behind-the-scenes look at DISH’s new 5G network, its work with AWS, and more. The original episode went live in June, and since then it’s been listened to thousands of times. Hit play to hear:  How hypers...

Last week I gave a keynote at the first-ever in-person MVNO Nation Live conference in beautiful Valencia, Spain. It was thrilling to talk to all of the entrepreneurial leaders at this event. They clearly see the huge upside of embracing public cloud technology and are poised to use it to become some of the world’s greatest brands. I’ve turned my keynote into this podcast episode. Listen now to hea...

Every telco leader, consultant, and analyst I talk to these days says the telecom industry’s move to the public cloud is in full swing. Today’s guest, Davide Bellini, agrees. As Accenture Applied Intelligence lead for the communications and media industry, he has his finger on the pulse of telcos around the world—what they’re thinking about, how they’re navigating challenges, and their vision for...

The signs are everywhere—the MVNO segment of telco is picking up steam. On November 16-17, 2022, MVNO leaders from around the world will gather at the inaugural MVNO Nation Live conference in Valencia, Spain, while 800-pound gorilla GSMA has plans to host its first MVNO Summit as part of the big show at next year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This makes it a great time to explore the ins a...

A couple of years ago, I learned that M1, a Singapore-based MNO, was doing exactly what I had been evangelizing about—going ALL IN on the public cloud. Leading the charge was then-Chief Digital Officer Nathan Bell. I’ve been hoping to have him on the podcast ever since I heard about what he was doing. Today, my wish comes true. In this episode, he joins me to talk about:  How Nathan and M1 got the...

For the last year and a half, I’ve been obsessed with one of the biggest collaborations worldwide between a telco and a hyperscaler: AT&T and Microsoft Azure. In 2021, the CSP sold its network cloud to Azure. Since then, people in the industry have been wondering what’s been going on, who’s doing what, and how things are going. For this episode, Shawn Hakl, Microsoft VP of 5G Strategy, joins me to...

India is a fascinating place for telco operators. It’s home to more than a billion subscribers, while also having some of the lowest ARPU on the planet. This means mobile operators there not only need carrier-grade software products, they need to get them for a low, low price.  Last week I delivered a keynote at Voice & Data’s “5G and the future of mobile data” conference in Delhi, India. I’ve tur...

When it comes to rolling out enterprise software, no one takes one for the team like the guys and gals in charge of delivery. They’re always on the front line, ready to battle any obstacle to get the system up and providing value to customers.  Up until now, rolling out a telco charging engine has been a huge, heavy lift for the delivery folks. But not anymore, because the public cloud-based Totog...

Moving to the public cloud is a major transformation for most telcos. There’s a lot at stake, and failure can spell disaster for an organization and its leaders. But the hard truth is that 70% of big transformation projects fail according to research from McKinsey & Company. In this episode, I sit down with Teena Piccione, a change management expert at Google, to dig into what telcos can do to kee...

Let’s be real: shifting workloads to the public cloud is no easy task. I’ve met a bunch of telecom leaders who debate about what is the best approach - should we go in one giant leap, or a series of steps? Their hesitancy to go all-in has left telco vendors designing and supporting multiple solutions—including private and hybrid cloud offerings—to meet them where they are, wherever that may be. If...

One thing I’ve learned from talking to telco execs across the globe about the public cloud is that security is top of mind. Another thing I’ve learned is that many of them don’t know a lot about just how secure the public cloud is. So for this episode, I’m joined by Amy Zwarico, director of cybersecurity at AT&T, one of the world's largest and oldest telcos. She’s here to explain why the public cl...

Telco leaders have been scratching their heads about how to monetize their 5G network. One of the world’s top think tanks, McKinsey & Company, has opinions on this topic—and research to back them up.  For this episode, I’m joined by McKinsey Partner Ferry Grijpink, founder of the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity. He’s got great insights into how data analytics can help telcos personalize...