ASML, chips and geopolitics

The lads are delighted to welcome special guest Zoe Osy de Zegwaart of PR agency CC Group/Hoffman this week. The three of them recently hung out in Dublin, so they start by reflecting on that before getting into an exclusive preview of a telecoms industry survey conducted by Zoe and her colleagues. Spoiler alert: it turns out operators can be a bit risk-averse and the returns from AI investments in telecoms can be a bit hit-and-miss. After an especially meandering and tangential discussion of the findings, they eventually conclude by analysing signs of growing suspicion towards Chinese companies in Europe.

Just the two lads back in the studio this week, back from their adventures in Dublin. They start by reviewing the reason for being in Dublin, the FYUZ industry gathering, and reflect on encounters and conversations they had there. The elephant in the room was the recent major investment in Nokia by Nvidia and they explore the implications of that, and the broader interest of mega US tech companies, to the telecoms sector. They eventually move on to discuss the latest developments in Germany regarding its policy on Huawei, before concluding by reviewing BT’s latest earnings announcement.

For this special edition of the podcast we partner with Cohere Technologies to explore a number of areas of wireless innovation. The main segment is recorded at Cohere’s stand at the FYUZ industry gathering in Dublin, featuring Cohere’s CEO Ray Dolan, Brad Stimpson of Bell Canada and Paco Pignatelli of Vodafone. They discuss radio innovation, the FYUZ event, recent Cohere announcements, the road to 6G and much more, with some valuable insights from the operators. This pod then moves to a purely audio segment recorded the previous day from the Stag’s Head pub in Dublin, featuring Ray and US defense industry insider Tom Rondeau, and exploring the emerging field of integrated sensing and communication..

The guys are delighted to welcome back special guest Danielle Rios of Totogi this week. Pausing only to acknowledge Danielle’s continued contribution to the pod’s refreshment resources, they get straight into Totogi’s recent initiative to make even the creation of telecoms software ‘AI-native’. Among the topics explored are the pros and cons of automating such things, as well as inevitable concerns about overly powerful and ubiquitous AI, before they eventually move on to give the public clod the same treatment and conclude with a look at Nokia’s recent quarterly earnings report.

This special midweek bonus episode of the pod features a conversation with special guest Marc Hijink. Marc is the author of Focus – The ASML Way, which charts the evolution of the Dutch company to its current position as the sole supplier of EUV lithography tools to the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. They start by discussing the book and the profound significance of ASML to the chip sector, before eventually moving on to explore its consequent position at the centre of the tech cold war between the US and China.

The lads are delighted to welcome back special guest Lee Myall of Neos Networks. Pausing only to reflect on the recent Network X trade show, they get straight into discussing the UK fibre connectivity sector, in which Neos is a provider of backbone infrastructure. The conversation includes an analysis of the impact the booming AI and data centre markets are having on that space. They eventually move on to review Vodafone’s recent RAN tender announcements before concluding with a look at Ericsson’s latest quarterly earnings report.

The lads were delighted to welcome back special guest, telecoms consultant William Webb. William is a prolific writer and a pod with him wouldn’t be the same without a book launch. He has significantly expanded on his book: The End of Telecoms History, so they start by examining the case for, and arguments against, his contention that global network traffic growth is peaking. They eventually move on to explore the utility of AI in managing networks before concluding with some casual speculation about changes at the top of US operator Verizon.

The guys are delighted to welcome special guest Karl Flinders, a journalist at Computer Weekly, this week. Karl is a colleague who also happens to be the person who has done much of the reporting on the protracted scandal surrounding the mistaken victimisation of UK Post Office workers due to faulty software. So, pausing only to reflect on a recent trip to New York courtesy of HPE, they explore the Post Office saga from the initial Computer Weekly reporting 16 years ago to the continued injustices still being committed. They eventually move on to look at Vodafone’s recent RAN vendor decisions before concluding by looking at the current status of Chinese vendors in Europe.

The lads were delighted to welcome special guest Simon Dumbleton from World Wide Technology this week. WWT is a system integrator that does a lot of work with telcos. They start by discussing what the current AI boom means for communications service providers and how best they should go about making the most of it, including optimal levels of investment. That eventually leads to reflections on the recent big round of investment pledges to the UK by US big tech, before they conclude by analysing Meta’s new smart glasses and what effect, if at all, products like that may have on the telecoms industry.

It’s double Nokia this week as our guest is from that company and the lads were also Nokia’s guests in Finland recently. Special guest Bjorn Capens is from Belgium and he brought over a selection of beers typical to that country. So they start by going though those before getting into Bjorn’s day job at Nokia, which focuses on fixed broadband networks, covering the history of broadband and the latest fixed network technology developments and market trends. They eventually get on to Iain and Scott’s visit to Oulu in northern Finland, where Nokia has just opened an impressive new wireless technology campus, before briefly reflecting on Oracle’s impressive recent earnings.