Our guest today is Rajeev Shah, co-founder and CEO of Celona, a Silicon Valley company specialising in the field of 5G wireless-based private cellular networks for enterprise customers. Rajeev has spent more than 20 years working on wireless communications technologies. With Celona, founded in 2019, he is equipping businesses with their own 5G-based private cellular networks—from industrial warehouses to hospitals. Much of the software for Celona is being developed at the company’s centre in Bengaluru.

(00:40) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(01:00) Our guest today — Rajeev Shah, co-founder and CEO, Celona Inc.

(01:55) How Celona was started — A snapshot of Rajeev’s career, and the idea of cellular networks instead of wifi

(06:04) Celona’s first commercial product — Replacing wifi networks with cellular ones

(07:45) What Celona is evolving into — Early customer adoption and the basic premise of a cloud network for the physical world

(09:48) The core technology developed by Celona

(11:10) Innovations built into Celona’s product and business model — Bringing enterprises and cellular networks—hitherto considered separate—together

(14:02) Explaining the idea of enterprise cellular networks as a new paradigm for cloud — For industries based on the physical economy

(18:41) Examples — How Celona’s network helps a retailer’s warehouse robots stay connected; and a manufacturer to deploy remote-controlled driverless trucks

(23:15) Advances in AI, automaton and 5G wireless networks enabling remote operations around the world

(25:42) What sets 5G apart — Two main characteristics

(29:00) Celona’s centre of excellence in Bangalore and work in India

(31:14) Product development division of labour between Silicon Valley and Bangalore

(32:52) Next big plans at Celona