Samsung focused on 5G from very early on. So it’s pioneered many innovations, especially in the millimeter wave spectrum space. And the company is focused on expanding in the U.S, which is an asset to our industry. Our guest this week is Derek Johnston, Head of Marketing at Samsung Networks. Don’t miss hearing what Derek shares about Samsung’s: 5G Innovation Zone, which explores manufacturing use cases for 5G Future augmented reality (AR) guided applications Expertise from the silicone layer thr...
Jun 05, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past few months, the network has faced sudden, unprecedented pressure as work from home and school from home became an instantaneous standard. This has placed new focus on the importance of broadband and the 5G rollout, and the workforce shortages affecting them. This week’s guest is Cari Shyiak, CEO of SAC Wireless. SAC teams work within all facets of wireless projects. For people looking for new careers, telecom holds a lot of promise. The industry will be expanding for years to come....
May 28, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast When people talk about the Internet of Things (IoT), they’re often talking about the many devices that can be connected. But we don’t want things to simply connect. We want to have a combined experience with those connected things. This week’s guest, Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO at Boingo Wireless, has thought about convergence a lot. In his “Convergence Manifesto,” he called on the industry to stop competing and start collaborating. In this episode, Dr. Derek shares: What the convergence mindset is ...
May 12, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast WIA’s premier industry conference, Connect (X), is going virtual this year. Connect (X): All Access will be held May 19, with a Small and Diverse Business Summit May 20-21. All virtual. All free. WIA’s President and CEO, Jonathan Adelstein, is this week’s guest. Listen now as he shares: What you can expect from Connect (X): All Access The exciting new Diversity Summit debuting this year The role the Women’s Wireless Leadership Forum (WWLF) plays in championing diversity The labor shortage pre-pa...
May 02, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The number of mobile customers are fairly fixed. And they will all pay roughly the same amount per month for service. If you’re a carrier wanting to recover the cost of implementing 5G, you’ll want to get smart about the opportunities to provide enterprise-class services on the edge. This week’s guest is Simon Crosby, CTO of SWIM.AI. SWIM analyses data as it’s streaming, rather than storing it to analyze later. For carriers, this helps them analyze the quality of their networks and the connectio...
Apr 17, 2020•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most companies recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I). But they may find themselves short of their goals when it comes to implementation. This week’s guests are from a Top 100 Certified Minority Business. They know what an effective D&I strategy looks like. Tom Marciano, CRO, and Iris Dawson, VP of Site Development work at inRange Solutions…A company with high retention rates and a management team that came mostly from backgrounds other than telecom. The company starte...
Apr 10, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast When companies shift to remote work, they usually do it gradually, with a plan in place. But over the past few weeks, many companies have gone from little remote work to almost 100 percent remote. Our guest this week is Stephan Dohrn, co-founder of Radical Inclusion. His company helps leaders manage their teams in remote environments. He’s here to offer advice for leaders who may be struggling with this sudden switch. In this episode, you’ll discover what leaders and managers should know to keep...
Apr 04, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The past few weeks have been uncertain and scary. In our industry, essential personnel are out there working to keep us connected, which is both worrying and inspiring. In spite of this reality, our worries and concerns haven’t dampened the hope and optimism for the robust recovery of telecom. Our guest this week is Brett Chester, VP of Marketing for Sitetracker. On March 25, the company published its Telecom Infrastructure Provider Outlook. The report is based on survey responses from the indus...
Mar 28, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest this week is Will Townsend, Senior Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. He travels the world spending time with enterprise infrastructure providers and operators. So, he understands the technology and the services that get layered over it. And he’s got solid ideas about what is coming next. Many of the most disruptive transformations will happen in industries that are still “old school.” Like how ride sharing disrupted the for-hire car industry. And many of the disruptions we can’t...
Mar 20, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re in vertical telecom, you’re familiar with permitting delays and workforce shortages. Your counterparts in horizontal deployments face similar challenges: more applications than governments can handle; uncertainty with regulation, and not enough workforce to install the conduit. But fiber faces other challenges specific to its underground environment. This week’s guest is Chad Rasmussen. He’s the President and CEO of the North American division of Cable Runner International. He explains...
Mar 10, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Finding and retaining talent are twin challenges facing our industry. Add in rapid company growth, and those challenges get more critical and severe. And yet Leaf Communications isn’t struggling, in spite of impressive growth. In fact, candidates actively seek positions within the company. So how are they doing it? In this week’s episode, CEO Dan Leaf, shares the key factors to Leaf’s success, including: Searching for candidates with the right character rather than particular skills. Focusing on...
Mar 03, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Perhaps because much of the time, it’s actually less visible. We’re talking about the fiber network. And 5G and smart cities cannot exist without it. In the top 25 U.S. metro areas alone, 5G needs 1.4 million miles of fiber. An estimated $130B-$150B in U.S. fiber investment is needed over then next few years to support the network! Our guest this week is Lisa Youngers. She’s the President & CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. The association is seeing growth of fiber across all applicati...
Feb 15, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode 12: How NATE is tackling the 5G Labor Shortage Guest Todd Schlekeway, Executive Director of NATE It’s a slow climb to train enough tower technicians. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says the U.S. 5G rollout requires 20,000 of them. Unfortunately, that many technicians simply do not exist today. As a result, rollouts are stalling. This week’s guest, Todd Schlekeway, is well-acquainted with this problem. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE). And...
Feb 05, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast . The future of telecom is much more than an advance from 4G to 5G. The entire industry is being upgraded. It’s no longer just a vehicle for voice and data. There’s a new space for telecoms and businesses to collaborate and create solutions. This week’s guest is Steve Canepa. He’s IBM’s Global General Manager for the Communication Sector. He and his team help telecom providers think beyond spectrum and 5G’s benefits. They learn to develop an ecosystem where they can help their business customers...
Jan 30, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Culture, Diversity, and Workforce Development. They sound like corporate buzz-speak. And it’s true that some companies only pay them lip service. But for the workplaces that understand, embrace, and implement them, they form the foundation of a strong, stable, and successful company. Jay Brown, CEO of Crown Castle, talks about how Crown’s focus on each of these have made it a coveted place to work and do business. In this episode, Jay shares: The three pillars of Crown’s culture—be real, be acco...
Jan 23, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does employee engagement really mean? Our guest this week, Rick Gallagos, CEO of Dale Carnegie Tampa Bay, describes it as “discretionary effort.” An engaged employee goes beyond the bare requirements of their job. Unfortunately for most companies, less than 1/3 of employees are engaged—that’s shockingly low!!! Which means around 70% of employees are on the disengaged spectrum. The merely disengaged do just their job, nothing more. The actively disengaged spread their dissatisfaction through...
Jan 17, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you heard that tower climbers will jump to a company for even the smallest increase in pay? It’s not necessarily true. What is true is companies are under a lot of pressure to get antennas installed. It’s also true that there’s a shortage of tower climbers to do the work. The industry is trying to fix the latter but, for the near future, the reality is not going to change. So, what can companies and climbers do? This week’s guest, Kathy Gill, Owner of Tower & Safety Instruction in Phoen...
Jan 03, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you have a talent shortfall? Open spots that you just can’t fill? The workforce shortage and its impact on the race to 5G is a regular discussion topic in the industry. If you’re feeling the pain of too much work and not enough workers, maybe you’re missing (or dismissing) a large segment of the American workforce. In the next few years, 35% of our workforce will be 50 or older. And 8% of them—about 13 million workers—will be 65 or older. This week’s guest is Miranda Allen. She’s a nationally...
Dec 14, 2019•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The fear that AI will take away a significant number of jobs is somewhat exaggerated, says Rana Gujral. Gujral is the CEO of Behavioral Signals and an expert on AI. Behavioral Signals creates software that introduces emotional intelligence into speech recognition technology. Gujral thinks of AI as comparable to major innovations from the past. They improved productivity and the overall economic ecosystem. They took what humans were doing and enhanced it. And, in many cases, they took on tasks hu...
Nov 21, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every company has a culture, but not every company has a winning culture. One that attracts and keeps talent. With a workforce shortage throughout the wireless industry, though, many companies are wondering what they can do to improve theirs. Every few weeks, 5G Talent Talk will feature a company that has figured it out. Our first culture champion is Tilson Technology Management with guests Josh Broder, CEO, and Adria Horn, VP of Workforce. Broder says Tilson isn’t a hard place to work, despite ...
Oct 16, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Robots and AI are poised to make life a lot easier for us. But that reality is causing a lot of people to lose sleep. Workers will be displaced, industries will be disrupted, and our workplaces will be changing. Guest Alexandra Levit doesn’t lose sleep over this. (But other questions keep her awake…) Levit is a futurist—she looks at marketplace trends to forecast what has the most potential to cause disruptions. She is also a consultant and author of “Humanity Works: Merging Technologies and Peo...
Oct 16, 2019•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast By 2020—just a few short months away—millennials will make up over 50% of the workforce. If you don’t understand your company’s average millennial retention rate (not your overall retention rate), it could be costing you a lot. The average millennial stays in a job for only 16 months. At an average cost of $36,000 to replace a millennial employee, rehiring costs quickly add up. And these costs are usually not in anyone’s budget, so the losses come out of company growth, R&D, or profits. But ...
Oct 16, 2019•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast .
Oct 16, 2019•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
