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PODCAST

Senza Fili Sparring Partners

Opinionated conversations in telecoms with Monica Paolini, Senza Fili, and her guests. Networks should be open, and so should our discussions on them.

technology

All Episodes

42:12

A multimodal connectivity and energy hub at Rosslare...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/04/11

My plan was to have a podcast on a 5G private network at the Rosslare Europort in Ireland. But this is not what this podcast is about. What our guest, Carl Coates, ICT Business Relationship Manager, at Irish Rail (the owner of the port), is doing at Rosslare is much broader, more ambitious and inspiring. It is more than a 5G mobile private network: it is a connectivity and sustainability project that is changing how people work, how the port collaborates with partners, and how it ensures its energy

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37:30

RAN automation needs digital antennas. With Aleksis...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/04/06

We are ready to move beyond the traditional approach that treats antennas as passive, set-and-forget transducers. Until now, this lack of visibility has left operators unable to fine-tune or optimize the radiation layer, especially in real time. Digital antennas provide the visibility and control necessary to make the antenna an integral part of a closed-loop, AI-driven RAN.In this Sparring Partners, I talk with Aleksis Anterow, CMO of Huawei’s Antenna Business Unit, about the essential role of

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34:26

The growing power of the edge. With Manish Singh at Dell

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/03/20

What should we keep in the cloud and in the edge? Computationally intensive functionality will remain in the cloud, but more is shifting to the edge, driven by the higher efficiency of edge solutions and the need to keep more data and processing locally.In this Sparring Partners, I talked to Manish Singh, Telecom Systems Business at Dell, about his perspective and vision for the edge, as the role and requirements of the edge evolve with AI, and on how to assess the edge/cloud tradeoffs. Edge

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37:19

MWC26 Unfiltered. Bonus episode with Sean Kinney at...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/03/13

We have done it again! At the end of MWC, Sean Kinney Editor-in-Chief at RCR Wireless and I sat down to compare notes on what we had heard and seen at MWC, skipping announcements and keynotes, and reflecting on what we had seen and heard out of the limelight.AI moving from demos into ops, the promise and pain of AI‑RAN, the evolution of open RAN, 6G, sensing, drones, and the industry's more realistic mood and expectations after the hype that dominated MWC 2025 are some of the topics we covered. And

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40:49

Defending democracy from social media weaponization....

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/02/23

Thousands of protesters were killed in Iran, and the world's attention moved on within days. It is a massive ethical failure, but hardly an isolated example of how social media is driving a culture of polarization, outrage, and misinformation. AI and pervasive connectivity amplify these trends, challenging the very survival of democracy, cohesion, and tolerance.Siavash Alamouti, Cofounder at mimik and a Marconi Fellow, is back on Sparring Partners to discuss a topic that most would rather avoid,

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46:44

The AI expertise paradox: Why being a specialist...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/02/20

In this second Sparring Partners with Philippe Ensarguet, VP Software Engineering and Orange Fellow at Orange, we talked about how human can remain relevant when AI is much better than us at crunching data, finding answers and running networks. Networks will change, but we have to change too. By 2030, human experts will no longer be knowledge providers and sense makers. They will have to learn to act as a wisdom compass.We will all need to shift from accumulating knowledge towards using

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37:02

What India teaches us about monetization. With Shiv...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/02/13

India is one of the most fascinating wireless markets and not only because of its size and enthusiastic uptake of wireless connectivity to run most daily activities. India defies most of our deepest ingrained assumptions about how wireless technology should be deployed and marketed, and how to profit from it.It turns out that despite extremely low ARPUs, initially fueled by aggressive competition, users in India have among the highest data consumption, and operators are profitable. Not only that,

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34:42

DNA: Will regulation fix spectrum fragmentation in...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/02/06

The latest Sparring Partners delves into the meanders of EU regulation and its ambitious goal to unify telecommunications across the 27 member states with the recent the European Commission’s Digital Networks Act (DNA).Richard Haas, Spectrum Policy Consultant at LS Telcom UK, graciously and patiently explains the complexity of the DNA so that even I could understand it. Not a small feat. Our discussion navigates the complexities of use-it-or-share-it spectrum provisions, the secondary market for

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38:50

Canada: Between a rock and a vast place, and the case...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/01/30

Canada faces massive geographical challenges. As the second-largest country on Earth, with 80% of the population living along the southern border, operators must navigate a unique mix of dense urban centers and vast, rugged rural areas. How can Canadian telcos provide top-tier service without breaking the bank?Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO Emeritus at TELUS and Executive Director at Guardian Safety Net takes us through a fascinating journey covering his career at the forefront of Canadian wireless

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38:30

Agentic AI: From passive assistance to active...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/01/23

Is Agentic AI the latest hype or a fundamental shift in how we run telco networks? Philippe Ensarguet, VP Software Engineering, Orange Fellow, Orange is a visionary believer of a rare lineage: he spent decades running large-scale mobile networks and knows what needs to be done and what can be done, but also has the technological insight into what AI and agentic AI can (and cannot) deliver.In this Sparring Parters, Philippe goes beyond the vision and explains what AI agents can do today and in the

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39:34

Backhaul and fronthaul for 5SA is transformative....

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/01/18

Backhaul and fronthaul (or xhaul) don’t get the attention they deserve. It is the RAN that gets most of the limelight, even though insufficient xhaul capacity is a deadly bottleneck. As we move to 5GSA, DU/CU splits and virtual RAN, we have more xhaul choices, but also we need to manage the xhaul more effectively to give the RAN the capacity and latency it now needs. It was a pleasure to dissect the topic and look at how xhaul is evolving with Andy Sutton, BT Fellow & Principal Network Architect

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48:48

What talking drums teach us about M-MIMO. With Zhang...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/01/09

The evolution of wireless networks from MIMO to M-MIMO and, finally, to GIGA MIMO is a fascinating story that tracks how a concept that initially few people believed could become a commercial reality has become a crucial technology for increasing the efficiency, performance, and availability of connectivity in cellular and Wi-Fi networks.In this Sparring Partners with Zhang Jiong, RAN Marketing Director at ZTE, we look at this amazing story, starting not with cellular connectivity, but with an

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44:32

6G: The intelligent plumbing for shared connectivity....

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2026/01/03

What do we need 6G for? In this conversation with Colby Harper, Founder and CEO at Pathfinder Wireless, we skip the argument over whether we need 6G to fix or improve on 5G, which is so boringly pervasive these days. Instead, we talk about how 6G can be a horizontal enabler for sharing connectivity across air interfaces and modalities, and for expanding connectivity options across verticals.It helps to think of 6G as a new, intelligent plumbing for telecoms to lay the foundation for a

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15:49

Cutting through the noise: Getting attention and...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/12/15

Technology moves fast, but marketing moves fast too, and possibly at a faster pace. AI, social media, and nonstop work demands have created an audience that is overwhelmed, distracted, and quick to tune out. How can we get our message across without compromising credibility? How do we keep our content relevant and engaging while avoiding flooding our channels with easy-to-generate content?Not easy questions, but Kris Kozamchak, Principal at Chanan Communications, took on the challenge, and

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34:06

Bahrain: The future is here. With Philip Marnick, TRA...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/12/09

In the second Sparring Partners on what we can learn from a country, I spoke with Philip Marnick, General Director at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, about Bahrain. It is a small country, but with much to learn from. It is at the forefront of innovation, but without price hikes. In Bahrain, you get top connectivity at affordable prices. What is the secret sauce to doing that? More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com Sign up for the mailing list at

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40:49

Are we improving energy efficiency fast enough? With...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/11/28

We all want to make wireless networks more energy efficient and sustainable. But how do we measure the progress, and how do we know we are taking the right steps? Not so easy.Emanuel Kolta, Lead Analyst at GSMA Intelligence, has been working on the complexities of measuring and improving energy efficiency. It is a very challenging but also intellectually fascinating area that has become even more urgent due to increased energy costs and supply uncertainties. How do we reduce energy consumption as

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40:09

How well does FWA work for subscribers? With Mike...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/11/22

FWA is one of the bright spots of 5G, especially in the US. But how well does it work for users? What are the scenarios where FWA is most beneficial to users and cost-effective for service providers? How much competition in terms of price and performance comes from satellite? And while, other things being equal, fiber is the best fixed broadband technology for residential users, do most households really need it (or do they just think they do)?Mike Dano, who recently moved to Ookla as a Lead

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47:50

What’s special about Argentina? With Ignacio Perrone,...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/11/14

This is the first episode of a Sparring Partners thread on what makes a country special and what we can learn from it. I will be speaking with someone who lives in that country and can share insights that go beyond the usual statistics and market forecasts, revealing things we do not know or expect.Since I got the idea for this while chatting with Ignacio Perrone at Frost & Sullivan, and a Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, as we were talking about Argentina and

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45:26

From dumb pipe to dumb space. With Rafael Junquera at...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/11/07

This is the title of a report from Telesemana that was the starting point of my conversation with Rafael Junquera, Editorial Director at Telesemana. We went back to what telecom was 20+ years ago and eventually arrived at the present, tracking the transition from explosive growth to a mature revenue environment and the impressive progress in technology and societal benefits that continues unabated.What does this tell us about the revenue potential of the new D2D services? Will the increasing

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44:53

Fiber sensing to protect telecom assets and generate...

Senza Fili Sparring Partners ·

2025/10/31

Wireless sensing is an emerging technology with great potential, but it is still in its early stages of development. Fiber sensing is a more mature technology that, surprisingly, has been used mostly outside of telecoms for a long time, and only recently has made its way into protecting telecom assets. Network operators may also use it to offer new revenue-generating services.I spoke with Andres Chavarria, Fiber Sensing Market Development Manager at VIAVI Solutions, about how fiber sensing works,

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94 results

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