Episodes
The lads are feeling the pace after a busy few days but find the energy for the second pod of the week, this time featuring special guest Jim Fagan, CEO of EXA Infrastructure. They start by learning more about Jim’s company, during which they learn a lot about fibre, datacentres and much more. That eventually leads to a discussion about subsea cables and why people keep sabotaging them, before they conclude by reviewing the Salt Typhoon and Vodaphone/Three news.
Published 12/09/24
Published 12/09/24
This unprecedented episode of the pod not only took place in the middle of the week, but also featured a dialled-in special guest in addition to Ray from Cohere in the studio. They start by finding out what Cohere does (spoiler alert: it has invented some cleverness that makes better use of radio waves), which gets into the weeds regarding radio technology in general. Cohere recently won a Glotel award in partnership with Vodafone Spain, so they eventually patch in Paco from that company to...
Published 12/05/24
One of the pod’s most regular guests – William Webb – returns because he’s written yet another book. They start by exploring the core theme of his book, which is that 6G is currently headed in the wrong direction and his proposal for a course correction. They eventually move on another of William’s favourite topics – the slowdown in global mobile data growth, before concluding with a look at Nokia replacing Huawei at Deutsche Telekom.
Published 12/02/24
Just Iain and Scott this week as they record ahead of the Glotel Awards evening. Pausing only to reflect on Iain’s hangover they start by discussing claims that T-Mobile US may be on the verge of ditching Nokia as a RAN vendor, which largely revolve around the pros and cons of using fans to keep things cool. They eventually move on to a story Iain wrote examining US vendor Mavenir’s struggles with 5G, before moving on to Scott’s pet topic of how geopolitics impacts the telecoms sector.
Published 11/25/24
The lads were delighted to welcome Harry Rippon of UK communications regulator Ofcom to the pod this week. They start by exploring the increasing number of roles Ofcom has in the UK comms market, touching on pricing and spectrum, before an inevitable Scott rant about censorship. That only leaves time for one more segment, in which Iain reflects on his attendance of the Fyuz event, as which Open RAN’s state or progress was a major theme.
Published 11/18/24
The pod is back, having skipped a week to allow Scott to galavant around Istanbul, and is delighted to welcome back special guest Neil McRae of Juniper Networks. After hearing all about Scott’s trip they get into the main news of the week – the near approval of the UK operator megamerger of Vodafone and Three. They eventually move on to discuss the latest developments in BT’s strategy before reflecting on the recent election of Donald Trump as US President and what that may mean for telecoms.
Published 11/11/24
There’s no guest this week, which is just as well as they didn’t have enough cameras to record three people anyway. The lads start by examining the many ways America is trying to starve China of access to semiconductors. That inevitably involves Huawei, which is the main proxy for this initiative, and they eventually move on to discuss Europe’s hesitance to do what the US tells it regarding Huawei, before concluding with the latest signals concerning the telecoms recession.
Published 10/28/24
Iain is back as co-host following Scott’s return from Paris and it’s just the two of them for their reunion. The big telecoms news of the week concerned quarterly announcements from big kit vendors Ericsson and Nokia, so they spend much of the pod analysing those, along with the usual tangents. They eventually get around to one more topic, a discussion of calls to ban smartphones in schools.
Published 10/21/24
This episode of the pod was recorded on the show floor of the Network X telecoms trade event in Paris. Iain didn’t make the trip so risked losing his co-host position to his colleague at Light Reading, Tereza Krasova, who joined Scott along with returning guest Gabriel Brown of Heavy Reading. The main topic of conversation was a review of the opening keynotes from the event, which focused on the opportunities offered by network APIs. After a few tangents they eventually conclude with a look...
Published 10/11/24
This special edition of the podcast was recorded in partnership with Cerillion and features a conversation between Louis Hall, Founder and CEO of Cerillion, and Scott Bicheno, Editor of Telecoms.com.
Published 10/08/24
The lads were delighted to welcome special guest James Crawshaw, Analyst at Omdia, this week. James is a telecoms software expert, so they started by analysing the recent creation of a new venture designed to open up networks to developers. They eventually move on to examine what concessions Vodafone and Three need to make to get their mega-merger approved, before concluding with a look at generative AI from a telecoms perspective, which inevitably degenerated into dystopian catastrophising.
Published 10/07/24
It was just the two of them this week, which presented the opportunity to be even more self-indulgent than usual. After a few industry shout-outs, the main recipient of that extra podding latitude was AI, which has been in the news even more than usual, as the utopians and dystopians battle it out for the future direction of this era-defining tech. They eventually move on to a spat between Deutsche Telekom and Meta related to the fair contribution debate, before concluding with a look at the...
Published 09/30/24
The guys were delighted to welcome special guest Stephane Remy of Cambridge Consultants to the pod this week. They start by finding out about Stephane’s day job, which involves all kinds of telecoms and tech cleverness. That leads to a broader discussion about the current state of the telecoms industry, before they conclude by analysing some recent AI news.
Published 09/23/24
The pod was delighted to welcome back GOAT guest Mary Clark this week. Mary is now the President and COO of caller ID startup Numeracle, so they start by hearing all about her new gig. They move on to discuss the latest attempt to catalyse the network API market, featuring Ericsson and a bunch of operators, before concluding with a look at what concessions Vodafone and Three could offer to get their proposed merger approved.
Published 09/16/24
After a five week absence, the pod returns from its second summer break. They were delighted to welcome special guest Mark Giles, Lead Analyst at Ookla. Iain and Scott had just come from an event hosted by BT/EE so they combine the review and analysis of that news with a discussion of what Mark does at Ookla. That left time to reflect on a piece of ‘fan mail’ Iain received and the story that seems likely to have provoked it.
Published 09/09/24
The pod was delighted to welcome special guest Lee Myall, CEO of UK business comms specialist Neos networks, to this last episode before its main summer break. They start by asking Lee to introduce his company, which leads to a general discussion of the market dynamics it operates within and the UK fibre market in general. This leads naturally discussion of a new group created to lobby for a better deal for UK altnets before they conclude by looking as the tricky spot US chip giant Intel...
Published 08/05/24
The pod is delighted to welcome back one of its most returning guests – telecoms consultant William Webb. William is also a prolific author and they start by discussing his latest book, The End of Telecoms History, which asserts that the industry has reached an inflection point and needs to pivot to new business models. A key to that assertion is the slowing of mobile data traffic growth and they go on to critique forecasts that claim the contrary, before concluding with a look at Microsoft’s...
Published 07/29/24
The pod was delighted to welcome back special guest Ed Barton, Director at Caretta Research. Ed’s field of expertise is in the digital media and entertainment markets, so they start by exploring some of the stuff that has caught his attention recently. They eventually move on to reflect on recent quarterly earnings announcement s from Ericsson and Nokia, before concluding with a critique of America’s belligerent trade policy towards China.
Published 07/22/24
The pod returns after for Scott to go galivanting around France. They start by recapping that trip, along with some of the political developments that took place since the last pod, before discussing the nature and implications of Germany’s apparent ban on Huawei kit. Since he has been doing most of the work, they move on to explore a couple of stories Iain wrote around Open RAN, before concluding with a look at how little you have to pay for a new phone these days.
Published 07/15/24
The lads made the annual pilgrimage to Copenhagen for the DTW event and thought it appropriate to record a pod with their Danish mate – analyst John Strand. Pausing only to review the beers John kindly brought along, they start by reviewing the event and specifically the opening keynotes. They move on to discuss industry initiatives in general before concluding with a chat about Strand Consult’s recent report analysing the effect of recent European elections on the telecoms industry.
Published 06/21/24
The guys were delighted to welcome special guest Sylwia Kechiche of Opensignal this week. They started with an overview of what Opensignal does, which led to plenty of telecoms tangents, especially concerning mobile user experience. Iain has written a fair bit about the telco cloud recently, so they eventually move on to that topic, before concluding with a look at Apple’s recent AI announcement.
Published 06/17/24
Everyone is back in the studio this week as the lads once more put a dent in their Beavertown bounty. They start by reviewing a couple of news items concerning artificial intelligence, which leads to the inevitable dystopian hand-wringing as well as a questioning of all the hype. They biggest beneficiary of AI so far has been chip company Nvidia, so they move on to discuss that company, before concluding by asking whether there’s any need for more 5G spectrum.
Published 06/10/24
A bit of a hybrid effort this week as the lads record over Zoom, but still come into the studio anyway. They start by discussing a piece Iain wrote, highlighting the increasing vulnerability faced by the world as everything moves into the public cloud. This leads to more Iain stuff, this time covering Open RAN for a change, before Scott finally gets a look-in to go over stories of his covering the UK shared rural network and possible 5G vendor swap in Portugal.
Published 06/03/24
This week’s pod was recorded remotely because Scott was larging it in the Canary Islands. After reflecting on Scott’s weekend on the lash, they start by reviewing data showing the telecoms recession is set to get worse before it gets better. They move on to assess China’s ability to manufacture cutting-edge chips before concluding by discussing a popular story of Iain’s regarding German policy towards Huawei.
Published 05/28/24