The Appledore Research Podcast

How is the transformation of telecom different from transformation in other industries? What can telecom learn from those and what is its own unique set of challenges? More importantly - given the mixed history of transformation thus far, is it time to reinvent telecom from a new perspective? In a highly enlightening discussion with Robert and John, Brian Shepherd, CEO of CSG, shares his thoughts on the need for reinvention in telecom, the right (and wrong) approach, and what to expect.

Not one but two guests this week, representing insights from Nokia's Digital Operations and AI teams - Deepa Ramachandran, Head of Portfolio Management for Nokia Digital Operations, and Henrietta Katajakoski, from AI & Analytics marketing. They both draw on plenty of time spent on real projects and customer discussions. Topics covered include Autonomous Networks, the Network Autonomy Chasm, Digital Twins, the size and impact of Agentic AI, and Nokia projects in North America and China.

AWS has been the most successful of the hyperscalers in convincing telcos to put mission-critical workloads onto public cloud. But it's taken a decade. In this episode, AWS' Chief Technologist for Telco, Ishwar Parulkar, explains the strategy behind AWS's significant impact and growing presence in telecom. With Patrick Kelly and Robert Curran.

AI - in the form of predictive models - has been part of the radio access network already for quite a few years. So what does the AI-RAN Alliance consortium bring that's new? And how has it progressed in the year since it was publicly announced. Just ahead of MWC2025, Patrick and Robert revisit the goals and work of the AI-RAN Alliance with its Chair, Dr Alex Jinsung Choi.

In a discussion that is as candid as it is well-informed, the CEO and President of Mavenir, Pardeep Kohli, shares his perspectives on the prospects for Open RAN, and Mavenir's strategies for growth in a challenging market. It's a frank and honest account of what it will truly take for operators - and the wider industry to achieve the transformative goals that open, disaggregated and cloudified networks make possible. the With Robert Curran and Patrick Kelly.

In this episode, we explore how the testing of networks has evolved to cope with rising complexity, new technologies, disaggregation, the acceleration of growth in networks, and fundamental changes in how telecom networks are used. We zero in on the re-framing of test from siloed function to a continuous process spanning vendor supply chains, traditional telco in-house test, through to live networks - a concept called "lab-to-live". Francis and Robert talk with Anil Kollipara, VP of Product Management for Test Automation at Spirent, one of the world's oldest established network test companies.