The Appledore Research Podcast

A conversation with the AI lab leader at the legendary Bell Labs, owned by Nokia since 2016. We focus on networks and AI, but take a peek into the future, as well as putting AI into a wider context of successive industrial revolutions.

GenAI shows no sign yet of losing its status as the hottest topic in telecom. In this episode Robert hears the latest from Appledore Principal Analyst for Digital Enablement, John Abraham, and gets a far-reaching in-depth explanation from Huawei Software on how they are using AI and GenAI into a range of digital enablement offerings and telco operator business processes.

Grant, Francis and Robert explore the topic of autonomous networks in telecom, challenging some misconceptions, clearing up some misunderstandings, and generally taking out some of the mystery about how to go about establishing them.

Patrick and Robert are joined by Nik Willetts, CEO of the TM Forum in a discussion that ultimately finds its way to Network APIs - but necessarily taking in the wide view of where telecom is at, and how things are more different today than at any point in its history.

In this week’s episode Patrick Kelly is joined by IBM Quantum Industry Partner, Imed Othmani, in a discussion on progress and obstacles in Quantum Computing. In particular, what and when will be the first practical applications of this technology. It’s a fascinating insight into the path from pure research to business value, and IBM’s approach to finding it.

Telcos are right to look to enterprise customers for near term growth. But that growth will see them selling new kinds of services, and is dependent on a new level of self-serviceability. In this episode Robert and Grant are joined by Itential CTO Chris Wade to discuss how the next big wave of digital services - an incremental revenue potential of $100B for telcos - can be enabled.

What do software leaders within telcos think about the tremendous rate of change and technological innovation taking place? How do they view topics like SaaS, GenAI, or edge computing? How do they consider the vendor landscape? What principles are most important in the era of cloud and continous delivery? In this thoughtful episode, Robert and John talk with Rob Bennett, SVP of Software Engineering at Echostar - the new name for the combined Dish Wireless and Echostar assets that were re-merged in early 2024.

IBM Research is responsible for ideas and innovations that will drive growth and redefine the state-of-the-art in technology. In a rare discussion with IBM Research , Patrick Kelly begins the episode with COO Jeff Welser by exploring the state of AI, and the practicalities of cutting-edge research. From there, it's a look into the relationship between AI and quantum computing, high-value use cases for both within telecom and in other industry sectors. And with a diversion into the world of 2nm silicon, cooling... it's quite the tour, right at the frontiers of technology.