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Tarana CEO Basil Alwan: Making WTF moments in FWA
Basil Alwan, CEO of Tarana Wireless, joins the podcast to discuss Tarana's approach to fixed wireless access (FWA) and why its technology is unique. Alwan, a startup veteran who most recently ran Nokia's IP/Optical business, also weighs in on how Tarana's gear can help lessen the digital divide and why some of the company's customers are having WTF moments about FWA.
In our conversation, we cover how and why Alwan became CEO at Tarana, a company that has been around since 2009, but only really started turning heads in the broader telecom market about a year ago. Alwan discusses how Tarana transitioned from handling small cell backhaul to building a novel broadband solution for service providers of all sizes, Tarana's G1 platform.
He goes on to talk about the costs that service providers should consider when deploying traditional fixed wireless and line-of-sight cellular technologies. Finally, he reveals how Tarana Wireless is working with service providers and other channel partners and how the company's latest funding round has changed things.
In March, Tarana announced that it had closed a $170 million round at a $1 billion valuation and was on track to "deliver over $100 million of revenue in 2022, from a customer base that has exploded to more than 120 service providers."
Here's how the conversation unfolded:
- How Basil Alwan became CEO of Tarana Wireless (01:26)
- Tarana Wireless's work in the small cell market (04:55)
- Market opportunities for FWA and line-of-sight technologies (07:06)
- Key regions where FWA can lessen the digital divide and the cost to service providers for homes passed (09:18)
- Digging into Tarana's latest funding round and growth prospects (12:03)
- How Tarana is going to market and how service providers are stepping up (13:24)
- A real WTF moment for one of Tarana's customers (21:33)
- What changes when your company becomes a unicorn? (29:25)
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