Telecoms.com Podcast

With Pierre returning to his roots, it’s a rare remote pod this week. After acknowledging a couple of great recent sessions, conversation turns to reflections on a week of quarterly earnings announcements. They start with Nokia, which felt compelled to warn the world about the negative effects of Trump’s tariffs, a topic that yields some fruitful tangents. Eventually the focus turns to Intel and its continued attempts to improve things for itself, before they conclude with a quick look at how AT&T is benefitting from recent political developments.

Ericsson, AI and CityFibre by Telecoms.com

6G, Open RAN and Google Cloud by Telecoms.com

This episode was recorded from the show floor of the Digital Transformation World 2025 event with special guest Analyst John Strand. Pausing only to review the Danish beer selection John provided, they get straight into a review of the show. Many familiar themes were covered once more, with AI providing much of the novelty, so the guys ponder how much progress is being made. They eventually move on to discuss recent news from US vendor Mavenir and what that may tell us about the industry, before reflecting on the US President’s involvement in a new MVNO.

The lads were delighted to welcome special guest, Analyst Paolo Pescatore, to the latest pod. Iain and Scott had already downed a couple before recording, so discipline was especially challenging. Luckily all the podders had been at the grand launch of VodafoneThree so they’re able to bang on about that for a bit. They eventually turn to the latest news from Apple, with Paolo having attended the supporting event in California earlier in the week, before concluding by pondering the role of emerging technologies in consumer devices.

The guys were delighted to welcome special guest Juliette Scott from Openreach, following their half-term break. Openreach is the UK’s biggest wholesaler of telecoms infrastructure, including all the legacy stuff, and Juliette is one of the people responsible for migration from old to new. So they start by talking about that, as well as the broader UK fixed line telecoms environment. They eventually move on to acknowledge the completion of the merger between UK MNOs Vodafone and Three, before concluding with a spot of light AI doom-mongering.

The guys were delighted to welcome special guest Brandon Larson of Mavenir to this last pod before a brief break. It doesn’t take long for AI to make an appearance in the conversation, but that’s fair enough because it’s a big part of Brandon’s day job. They focus on what AI means for telcos, but there are inevitable tangents in the direction of assessing the utopian vs dystopian implications of the technology. They eventually move on to discuss BT’s latest quarterly announcement before concluding with a quick look at stories concerning OpenAI and Malaysia.

6G, GSMA and geopolitics by Telecoms.com

This special mid-week recording of the pod was scheduled so we could speak to spectrum policy consultant Dave Wright while he was in town. Scott starts by asking Dave why operators and the industry associations who represent them are constantly begging for more spectrum in frequency bands that have limited utility. That conversation goes on to cover the competing needs of the cellular and wifi worlds before they conclude with a look at evolving US trade policy towards China.

The lads are uncharacteristically smart this week ahead of an event Scott chaired immediately after recording. One of the speakers at that event was Analyst Roz Roseboro of Omdia and she was able to join the pod for a bit. They start by reflecting on another recent event they all attended called FutureNet World, which covered a lot of telecoms industry hot topics. They go on to talk about AI, which was the theme of Roz’s event, before concluding by questioning the utility of higher frequency spectrum.