Senza Fili Sparring Partners

Commercializing APIs – Taking them to the next level. With Ron Porter and Enri-k Salazar at Amdocs

A conversation with Ron Porter, Head of 5G, Network & OSS Product Marketing at Amdocs and Enri-k Salazar, API Commercialization Platform at Amdocs
As networks need to establish a closer integration within a growing ecosystem of connected consumers and industries, APIs are back as a crucial tool to enable improved services and user experience to unlock new revenue opportunities.
Monetizing APIs requires more than exposure of network functionality. In this conversation with Ron Porter, Head of 5G, Network & OSS Product Marketing at Amdocs and Enri-k Salazar, Product Line Management Lead API Commercialization Platform at Amdocs, we talk about how, to achieve meaningful traction in this market, operators need to productize and commercialize APIs as they would any other business line, and choose wisely their roadmap and how to reach out to their application partners.
Key discussion points:
Establishing a solid foundation for APIs: NaaS automation, dynamic charging, and an E2E commercial strategy
The role of network orchestration in the delivery of commercially successful APIs
Managing consent oversight and complexity in data governance in APIs
Essential role of charging and pricing agility in optimizing API monetization
Expanding customer reach by syndicating APIs to multiple commercial sales channels, such as hyperscalers, aggregators and marketplaces
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Read the report "Taking telco APIs to the market. The API ecosystem connects operators, enterprises and app developers"
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

The life of a digital twin. With Chris Murphy, VIAVI Solutions

Digital twins give us the unprecedented opportunity to explore alternative worlds or scenarios where things are similar to the real ones, but differ from them in subtle ways, so we can see how things look like if only we make a few changes. It is a fascinating way to explore the possible but also to avoid failures, assess the impact and benefits of network changes or new technologies, and compare different decisions before implementing one.
How does this work in practice, in real networks? I talked to Chris Murphy, Regional CTO for EMEA, VIAVI Solutions, who has been working on AI and telecom networks for a long time, to tell us how we can get digital twins for us. We talked about their potential, but more importantly, about how to get them to work in real networks, how to extract the most value from them, and how to avoid the challenges that they create. No slide-deck shine, I promise.
If you want to go deeper on digital twins, check the conversation I had with Sameh Yamani, also at VIAVI Solutions.
https://senzafili.com/network-apis-and-digital-twins-as-the-next-frontier-in-digital-innovation/
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

How should we test for user experience? With Irina Cotanis

In the past, we used to test networks, not user experience. What really matters today, however, is user experience, and that requires a different approach to testing. Network tests may fail to uncover problems with user experience.
I spoke with Irina Cotanis, an Independent Technical Consultant I have known for a long time, while she was at Infovista, about how user experience testing is evolving to cover both human and non-human users, as well as a wider range of applications and services that must coexist on the network and have diverse requirements. All this has to be done in networks that are more complex and dynamic. How can we meet the higher bar ahead of us with tight resources? How does AI and automation help?
 
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to Sparring Partners events and updates on what we do.
If you enjoyed this podcast, subscribe to the Sparring Partners feed on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify

Will AI increase traffic? With Sean Kinney, RCR Wireless News

Everybody seems to think that AI will create a massive increase in traffic. The prediction sounds eerily similar to what we heard about 5G, before it got deployed. Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief at RCR Wireless News, and I beg to differ. We agree through most of the discussion, which is great because our view is definitely not in line with the industry consensus. Listen to the podcast if you want to hear something different.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to Sparring Partners events and updates on what we do.
If you enjoyed this podcast, subscribe to the Sparring Partners feed on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify

The long-term view on automation. With Mansoor Hanif

We usually look at the present or the future of technologies. In this podcast with Mansoor Hanif, Independent Executive Advisor, we took a look at the past. What were the challenges for network automation six years ago? What did we expect? In one of the first Sparring Partners on automation included in this report, I talked to Mansoor while he was at BT about zero-touch automation, AI and much more. He then moved to Ofcom and Neom, continuing to follow the progress of automation.
Here, we revisit the initial interview in light of the progress made and the expected outcomes. We were surprised to see that most of the challenges are still with us and that the predictions turned out to be accurate. But read the interview, listen to the podcast, and judge for yourself.
You can read the interview here:
https://senzafili.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/SenzaFili_Automation.pdf
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Please subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify.

Data sharing to optimize AI performance. With Paul Patras, Net AI and the University of Edinburgh

Training data determines how good AI models are. As with any type of learning, you need good teachers and content. In telecoms, there is more data than we need, but not all is good or relevant. One way to get AI models trained on the right data is to share data across sources—operators, vendors and others.
I talked to Paul Patras, Co-founder and CEO at Net AI, and Professor of Mobile Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, about how to share data in telecoms and how that improves the performance of AI models, for instance in increasing energy efficiency, and how ARIA is supporting innovation efforts that will facilitate removing data sharing barriers in the UK.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to Sparring Partners events.
 

Getting UnLinkedIn the hard way. With Frazer McKimm, New Way Networks

Our identity, who we are, is increasingly becoming defined by our online self. For many of us, our LinkedIn presence has become the main or a major channel for professional social media. What happens if that disappears overnight? Literally during the night. You no longer have access to it, and someone else with a different gender, name and nationality takes over.
This is what happened to Frazer McKimm, Director at New Way Networks, who told us his story and how he managed to get himself back. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but this is more of a thriller than other episodes.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.

Ageism and talent in telecoms. With Nirlay Kundu, IMDEA Networks

It seems fitting to have a podcast on ageism after a popular one with Simona Marinova on attracting young talent in telecoms.
Ageism is not only hard on the people affected by it, but also limits the ability of the industry to benefit from the experience of the senior workforce. At the same time, letting older people run the show may also slow down innovation and make telecoms less appealing to the younger generations.
I talked to Nirlay Kundu, Head of Technology Standards at IMDEA Networks. I have known Nirlay for a long time since he was at Verizon. He has a precious long-term perspective on ageism and talent in telecoms, spanning the US and Europe, working at an operator, and now mentoring and doing research with the youngest generation. How do we strike a good balance between attracting new talent and benefiting from wisdom and experience? What’s the best way to work together and help each other?

The latest on APIs: Wi-Fi and adoption. With Markus Kümmerle, CAMARA and Deutsche Telekom

It was after the Sparring Partners with Markus Kümmerle, Chair of Marketing at CAMARA and Magenta API Exposure Tribe Leader, Deutsche Telekom, that I decided to write my report on APIs, and so we came full circle in getting an update on APIs and getting Markus' feedback on the report.
We started talking about how Wi-Fi and cellular APIs need to coexist and then went further into fixed APIs and non-telco APIs—those provided by Google, Apple, vendors, and those distributed by hyperscalers in their marketplaces.
Have a look at the report (it is free) for more information and to see the transcript of our initial conversation here:
https://senzafili.com/taking-telco-apis-to-the-market/
More on CAMARA
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events

Telco APIs from the TM Forum. With Andy Tiller, TMF

Most of the talk today is on network APIs, but the universe of APIs is much bigger, and it is not only proprietary, non-telco, and Wi-Fi APIs. The TM Forum APIs have been around for a long time and have been widely adopted by service providers.
I talked with Andy Tiller, EVP Products and Services at TMF, about what the TMF APIs do, what different role and functionality they have compared to network APIs (the CAMARA and GSMA Open Gateway), how they help operators, and what spurred their adoption. We discussed APIs within the Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and the trend toward automation and AI in telecoms.
For more on telco APIs, read the “Taking telco APIs to the market” report that I just published.
Sign up for the mailing list to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

Growing pains in telecoms. With Joel Brand, Marvell

Telecoms has become a mature industry after decades of explosive growth. How do we manage innovation, the introduction of new technologies, and the growth expectations in this new environment?
I talked with Joel Brand, at AVP Product Management at Marvell, about how we can adjust to the new environment and what changes we need to make. Telecoms has been and still is an astounding success, even though we often complain about not meeting our expectations. We spanned many topics, including dumb pipes, utilities, replacement rates, power efficiency and sustainability, network capacity and efficiency, 5G, learning from other sectors, the Lego model, AI (and hype) and AI-RAN.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
More on Marvell at https://www.marvell.com/
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
 

Better indoor Wi-Fi connectivity with Passpoint and Wi-DAS. With Howard Buzick, American Bandwidth

Most indoor connectivity already goes through Wi-Fi. Why do we need Passpoint to improve access to Wi-Fi networks? How can a Wi-DAS deployment help? Howard Buzick, Co-Founder at American Bandwidth, told us how Passpoint makes our Wi-Fi connections more seamless and secure and how American Bandwidth helps retail, healthcare, education and government organizations use Passpoint and a Wi-DAS architecture to make it easier to connect to their networks and to improve coverage.
Check out American Bandwith at https://ameriband.com

Wireless ticketing on trains in the US: Why is it so hard? With Jim Allison, CCJPA

If you use public transportation across countries, you probably noticed how much easier it is to pay with your phone in Europe or Asia than in the US. In part, this may be due to the more limited public transportation infrastructure and use and lower use of contactless payments for non-cash payments (half that of Europe).
But what I learned from talking to Jim Allison, Manager of Planning, Capitol Corridor Joint Power Authority (CCJPA), is that setting up wireless ticketing in the US is extremely complex – more so that, say, in the UK. Jim managed to pull it off and tells us how he did it. It is a fascinating story about how regulation and ecosystem structure exert a power that no amount of technology can match.
I have worked with Jim for a very long time to get Wi-Fi on CCJPA and Amtrak, and we talked about that too. We now take free Wi-Fi on trains almost for granted, but it took some time and effort to get there.
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.

Real-life, revenue-generating network APIs at TIM Brazil. With Leonardo Siqueira, TIM Brazil

Commercial adoption of APIs is still in the early days in most markets, but there are a few exceptions. Brazil is one of them, with operators offering them to app developers and getting revenues from them, supported by market demand and a facilitating regulatory environment. I talked with Leonardo Siqueira, Data Monetization and Mobile Ads Director at TIM Brazil, about the API rollout from 2023, the use cases, business models and what lies ahead.
If you want to read the transcript or watch us on video go here.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to live Sparring Partners events

Open DAS: Open RAN and DAS converge. With Upendra Pingle, ANDREW

It is hard to overstate the need for more indoor capacity and better coverage when you think that over 80% of traffic comes from indoor locations. And to address this need, we need more indoor infrastructure. But what’s the best way to get there? DAS or small cells? Or is Wi-Fi enough?
I talked to Upendra Pingle, General Manager, Indoor Cellular Networks at ANDREW, an Ampehnol company, one of the most passionate advocates of indoor coverage, and we talked about what could be a third way: Open DAS. It is different from the expensive and complex traditional DAS, and closer to a small-cell open-RAN architecture. How should we think about the Open DAS? How can DAS benefit from disaggregation? And are we at a point where DAS and small cells converge into a hybrid model?
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the Senza Fili mailing list to receive invitations to live Sparring Partners events.

Does 6G need private networks? Do private networks need 6G? With Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis

Dean Bubley at Disruptive Analysis and I had a broad and deep discussion on the future of private networks as we move to 6G. We talked about indoor coverage, Wi-Fi networks, standardization, 3GPP and future adoption. But I do not want to spoil your experience, so you have to listen to know what our answers are.
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.

DeepSeek, Agentic AI: Moving forward with AI. With Siavash Alamouti, mimik

What do DeepSeek and agentic AI have in common? They show how AI and GenAI are evolving. They are not just getting better. They are spreading out in multiple directions to better meet our needs, to be more efficient, and, ultimately, to make the adoption of AI easier and more compelling.
Siavash Alamouti, Co-Founder and Chairman at mimik, presents a fascinating and compelling vision of how AI is evolving, and a precise and insightful assessment of DeepSeek. No panic, no hype, but a realistic and positive outlook of what the future may bring us. 
Highly recommended: Siavash’s DeepSeek's $6M LLM: Efficiency Masterclass or Propaganda? and Quantifying Energy and Cost Benefits of Hybrid Edge Cloud: Analysis of Traditional and Agentic Workloads (mentioned in the podcast)
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com. Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to live Sparring Partners events and latest content from Senza Fili. 
 

AI-RAN: All you need to know. With Alex Jinsung Choi, SoftBank and the AI-RAN Alliance

Everybody talks about AI-RAN, but it is often unclear what they mean by it, how it relates to Open RAN, how AI will change the RAN evolution, and what AI in the RAN will help operators support new services or improve current ones.
Alex Jinsung Choi, Principal Fellow at SoftBank Corp. and Chair at the AI-RAN Alliance, explains it all with great clarity and a clear vision for what RAN evolution is about, drawing from his previous work at Deutsche Telekom, O-RAN ALLIANCE and TIP.
If you want to dig deeper, check out these excellent papers:
AI-RAN Alliance Vision and Mission White Paper (AI-RAN Alliance)
AI-RAN: Telecom Infrastructure for the Age of AI (SoftBank Corp.)

Attracting talent in telecom. With Simona Marinova, Bell Canada

Telecom is no longer the magnet for talent that it was when I joined. Talented people entering the job market now often prefer to work for hyperscalers or other high-tech companies. Why is it so? And how can we make telecom more attractive to the younger generations?
I talked to one of the super-talented young people, Simona Marinova, Solution Architect at Bell Canada, who bucked the trend and joined Bell Canada while doing her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto to see what motivated her to get into telecom and to talk about what we can do as an industry to attract her peers.
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

Catching up with Yago Tenorio, Verizon: A new job and 2025 predictions

Yago Tenorio just moved to Verizon as SVP and CTO from Vodafone—and from Europe to the US. We talked about how Europe and the US compare, what he will do at Verizon, what the future holds for Open RAN and what 2025 looks like for telecom.
As always, Yago has deep and unique insights into the technology and the market, and in this conversation, we went off the beaten path to explore new perspectives on technology evolution – how we got here and where we are going.
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

How will quantum computing change telecoms? With Sapphire Lally and Amit Nagpal, Aetha Consulting

Quantum technology promises massive increases in computing speed and efficiency. What will this mean for telecoms? Sapphire Lally, Consultant, and Amit Nagpal, Partner at Aetha Consulting took us on a fascinating overview of what quantum technology is and the role it can play in telecoms (spoiler: security is the low-hanging fruit, network efficiency is next).
While vendors and operators have started exploring quantum, we are still in an early development phase. What are the opportunities and challenges? What will the timeline be? Who will be part of the ecosystem? How should we get ready for quantum computing? We covered all this and more.
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

Is RCS finally taking off? With Mario Betti, Mobile Ecosystem Forum

It has taken some time, but finally RCS is becoming ubiquitous in mobile devices. No longer confined to the Android world, it is now supported by Apple devices. In this conversation with Dario Betti, CEO at Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), we talked about what the adoption of RCS means for subscribers, operators, enterprises and everybody else in a widening ecosystem. Is RCS going to replace SMS? Can RCS expand WhatsApp services or compete with it? Will revenues shift from SMS to RCS? And will they grow?
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com
More on MEF at https://mobileecosystemforum.com/

Blockchain enables new offload and sharing models. With Mario Di Dio, Nova Labs

Offload can improve subscriber experience and reduce operators’ costs, but it is still limited because we do not have the right economic incentives and transparency on the quality of the offload. Can blockchain help create new business models that combine transparency and incentives and that will get offload off the ground? Mario Di Dio, GM of Network at Nova Labs/Helium, presents a new offload model that uses blockchain to share KPIs and the real-estate value of Wi-Fi offload connections and to create a market for Wi-Fi hotspot owners and operators to manage offload.
More on Helium at hellohelium.com 
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

Trump Administration: What should we expect? With Monica Alleven, Fierce Wireless

We don’t yet know for sure what will change in January with the second Trump term, but a picture is coming together on what may happen with anticipated nominations (Brendan Carr to head the FCC, and more) and with the expected influence of Elon Musk. Monica Alleven has explored this topic and written extensively about it at Fierce Wireless and shared her insight in this episode – and as always, it was a pleasure to talk to Monica. We covered BEAD, USF, satellite, fair share, net neutrality, FCC, regulation in the US in comparison to other countries, and more.
Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/to receive invitations to the live Sparring Partners events.
Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at podcast@senzafili.com 
You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice, including Apple and Spotify
More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com