Anil Kollipara

"You shouldn’t wait around. You should be out there trying to break it, to fix it in advance," says Anil Kollipara, Vice President, Product Management, Spirent.

In this edition of Technology Reseller News, publisher Doug Green sits down with Anil Kollipara, Vice President, Product Management at Spirent, to discuss a critical theme in modern telecom: operational resilience. As Mobile World Congress (MWC) approaches, the industry faces growing demands for always-on, secure, and reliable networks. Kollipara explains why continuous testing, security validation, and AI-driven automation are now essential for maintaining uptime and mitigating risk.

The New Reality: Why Telecoms Must Build Resilience Now

With telcos under pressure to launch new services, comply with increasing regulations, and secure networks against evolving threats, operational resilience has become a business imperative. Kollipara highlights key challenges:

Rising Complexity – With 5G, cloud-native architectures, Open RAN, and AI, networks are more complex than ever, spanning multiple vendors and increasing risks.

Security Threats & Compliance – As attack surfaces expand, regulators are enforcing stricter security and uptime requirements, making compliance failures costly.

Customer Expectations – Downtime isn’t an option. Even a short service disruption can lead to frustration, revenue loss, and customer churn.

Why Traditional Testing Fails

Kollipara explains that traditional telecom testing models are outdated. Many operators still assume their vendors will handle testing, which is no longer a viable approach. Recent real-world incidents, such as supply chain vulnerabilities, have cost companies hundreds of millions in losses. He emphasizes that telcos must own their testing process and adopt a zero-trust change management approach:

Proactive vs. Reactive Testing – Instead of waiting for failures, operators should continuously test, stress, and break their networks in controlled environments before customers feel the impact.

Continuous Testing Pipeline – A lab-to-live methodology ensures that networks are resilient at every stage—from pre-launch simulations to real-time service monitoring.

Security & AI-Driven Automation – AI-powered fault detection, remediation, and security testing can predict and prevent outages before they occur.

The ROI of Continuous Testing

While continuous testing may seem costly, the return on investment (ROI) is undeniable. Kollipara outlines key benefits:

Massive Cost Avoidance – Avoid fines, legal costs, and customer losses from regulatory non-compliance or service disruptions.

Operational Efficiency – AI and automation reduce reliance on manual testing, cutting costs while increasing accuracy and speed.

Customer Retention & Revenue Growth – A more reliable network leads to higher customer satisfaction, reduced churn, and new monetization opportunities.

Trends to Watch at Mobile World Congress

As MWC 2025 kicks off, AI-driven testing, cloud-native resilience, and next-gen security strategies will be major talking points. Kollipara teases some of the latest innovations Spirent will showcase:

AI Agents for Network Operations – Accelerating root cause analysis and remediation of issues in real-time.

SCNF Resiliency Testing – A new test category focused on validating how telecom applications behave in cloud-native failures.

5G & Edge Security Strategies – How operators can harden security as networks expand beyond traditional data centers.

Learn More & Meet Spirent at MWC

For a deeper dive into operational resilience, continuous testing, and AI-driven automation, visit Spirent’s website. If you're attending Mobile World Congress, be sure to connect with Anil Kollipara and the Spirent team for expert insights into the future of telecom resilience.

Description of Spirent:

Spirent Communications plc.