VMO2, Huawei and AI doom

The lads hobble back into the studio this week to chat to special guest Eoin Coughlan of IBM. Helped along by the medicinal effects of an excellent Irish beverage, they start by exploring what IBM’s interests are in the telecoms industry and in AI. IBM is involved in the ‘plumbing’ for both, as it is many other industries, so they have a deep dive into the practical implementations of AI. They eventually move on to other news, including Ericsson’s latest quarterly earnings announcement and the acquisition of satellite company Globalstar by Amazon.

A rare Zoom pod this week as overwhelming audience demand persuades Scott to overcome his aversion to the format. They start by exploring the news of UK mobile operator announcing the winners of its latest RAN upgrade work. The most fun part of this news was attempts to influence the narrative around it and subsequent minor PR drama. They eventually move on to examine Huawei’s 2025 revenues before concluding by pondering what effect AI is having on our ability to think.

The lads manage to squeeze in a second recording in a week and this time it’s a rare pod when there’s no guest. As a consequence, Iain and Scott are able to do a deeper dive into recent news and they select announcement made by Nvidia to discuss first. Specifically the US tech giant has refined its pitch to the telecoms industry under the concept of the ‘AI grid’, so they explore that and ponder its appeal to the telecoms industry. They eventually move on to look at some of the business challenges faced by Nokia before concluding by analysing the implications of recent legal rulings against social media platforms.

The lads are delighted to welcome special guest Jeremy Chelot, CEO of UK altnet Netomnia, to this early pod. Jeremy is very much in the news these days thanks to his company’s acquisition by Nexfibre (not VMO2) to create a major challenger to Openreach in the UK fibre market. They start by exploring Netomnia’s business and the rationale behind the acquisition, before moving on to examine the dynamics of the UK altnet market and concluding with a discussion of some of the technologies it relies on.

Back in the studio, the lads are delighted to be joined by returning special guest, Opensignal analyst Sylwia Kechiche. This being the first pod after MWC, they review the main themes taken from the show. They start by reflecting on the prominence of satellite connectivity as talking point at the show, reflecting on confusing market messaging on the matter. The various manifestations of AI are then discussed, before they conclude by reviewing the early hyping of 6G and asking whether it’s justified.

The guys wasted no time in bringing you their special podcast recorded from the show floor in Barcelona. Overwhelming demand means they’re delighted welcome no less than four guests, but are slightly more organised about it than last year. First they’re joined by Ray Dolan from Cohere and Mike Dano from Ookla. Both are familiar faces but there was still plenty to catch up on, including talk of satellites and network sensing. Eventually they give way to Queen of Props, Totogi’s Danielle Rios, and industry expert Dan Warren. Among the topics the four then discuss are network software and, of course, AI.

As has become tradition, the guys are delighted to welcome back special guest Analyst Dean Bubley, to look ahead to the main themes of this year’s big telecoms trade show. They start with the obvious – AI – but strive to inject focus and substance into this ubiquitous and often hyperbolic topic by discussing agents, automation, and APIs. They then move on to the matter of sovereignty and how viable it is for countries to become more self-sufficient in a time of ultra globalisation. The final big theme is satellite telecoms, with direct-to-device likely to be a hot topic at the show. They conclude by examining recent conjecture on the effect AI will have on the world and its workers.

For the second day in a row the lads were delighted to welcome a special guest, this time Fran Heeran, head of telecoms at Red Hat. For once they waste little time before moving on to the main topic of Red Hat and getting to the bottom of what it does. Spoiler alert: it’s open-source software for enterprise, which includes telecoms, so they explore topics such as virtualization, containers, and assorted other software arcana. They eventually move on to look ahead at some of the likely innovations and opportunities offered by 6G before concluding by exploring some of the practical telecom applications of AI.

Openreach, PSTN and AI by Telecoms.com

Just Iain and Scott this week as their guest had one of those ubiquitous UK winter bugs. After acknowledging some recent social engagements, they get into the matter of data sovereignty, which has become even more important since supposedly allied countries started threatening each other. The main question concerns how viable it is for Europe to be less reliant on world superpowers. That naturally leads to more general geopolitical chat before they conclude by discussing the business and societal implications of jobs being automated away by AI.