If telcos and other network operators are facing major profit challenges, cost management is clearly one option to address them. Cost management includes operations costs, and historically operators have spent more on opex than on capex. Even though the gap between the two has narrowed considerably over the last decade, every telco I’ve talked with…
Is there life after 5G? That’s not as silly a question as it might seem, because for a decade 5G has been the only major telecom initiative that had actual funding support. Now 5G is winding down, which means 5G spending is declining, which means telecom spending is going with it. This has already impacted…
Years ago, I used to survey users every year on a variety of network and IT topics. That eventually proved to be time-consuming and difficult to justify in terms of return, but I still gather some of the information through regular exchanges with enterprises. Included in these are both many from the original survey base…
EU telcos want Big Tech subsidies. Telcos worldwide are saying that their profit per bit is threatening to go negative. Vendors who focus on the industry are reporting misses in their numbers and are revising their outlooks in a negative direction. Does this sound healthy to you? I’ve talked about the issues behind this for…
Many people recognize the phrase “e pluribus unum”, normally translated as something like “from many, one”. It’s the motto of the US, but it’s also a kind of de facto motto for buyers of technology. They need one data center, one network, and they’d like to make it from pieces supplied by many. Or would…
We’re happy to say that users have been willing to connect with us to ask questions and offer their views on tech topics, and we encourage all users to do this. We do need users in some specific verticals, where our contacts are more limited. These include: If you’re a technology user in any of…
I got an interesting question from an telco planer recently, on the ever-popular topic of generative AI. What they were interested in was the infrastructure requirements associated with deploying a generative AI service, and also what they might want to consider as the basis for a “private AI” offering. I think it’s a worthwhile question…
How smart was Nokia’s move to embrace Red Hat for platform software rather than continuing to try to support its own stuff? The move has been reported to be focusing on things like 5G Core, but I’m hearing stories that it’s a much broader and much more important step. If that’s true, then it’s fair…
OK, generative AI is getting a lot of good ink, and some bad as well. There’s little question that AI in general, and generative AI and “large language models” or LLMs in particular, are going to bring about major tech changes and even changes to our lives. There’s little question that the negatives, including their…
Trust is really important in sales. My decades of research have shown that effective selling is really about trust transfer. A salesperson builds trust with a prospect, and if they’re effective they transfer that trust to their statements about user needs and product capabilities, and that’s what ultimately sells. One thing that’s stood out for…