Episodes
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During his 11-year tenure at Nokia and its subsidiaries, David Eckard has journeyed from design engineer to chief technology officer to his current position: vice president of strategy and technology of North America. With 2021 ending, Eckard recently joined Nokia Today podcast host Tyler Kern to discuss the latest trends in the telecommunications industry and what may lie ahead in 2022.
The telecommunications industry used to be a “layered cake,” as Eckard described. Everyone in the market was responsible for something, whether that was chipsets, product components, product creators, or service providers. When the iPhone era arrived, services decoupled, causing these layers to interconnect.
Decoupling brings concerns with reliability, security and who will make everything work while providing performance, speed, scalability, and centralization. “At the end of the day, the big challenges we are seeing is who actually owns that customer?” Eckard said. “Because in the past, these service providers were the ones who truly owned those customers. Now, with the webscale companies coming in such as Amazon and Microsoft, they all have such a huge and immense suite of resources, of applications and tools that they are now opening up for others to build upon,” he continued.
The main innovation challenge is how well teams, companies and individuals will bring things to market and execute them. Consumer acceptance is the easy part. Eckard stated, “The pace of acceptance of innovation, the acceptance of new technology into those spaces is just phenomenal.” Obsolescence of rapidly certain technologies also presents the challenge of how to carry data forward and not lose it. Eckard also touched on a dilemma that innovators face: How will they address disrupted technologies versus sustained ones? Large companies will need to bring technologies to scale to allow sustenance.
For more information on the current trends and state of the telecommunications industry, visit nokia.com or subscribe to the Nokia Today podcast on Apple iTunes or Spotify.
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During his 11-year tenure at Nokia and its subsidiaries, David Eckard has journeyed from design engineer to chief technology officer to his current position: vice president of strategy and technology of North America. With 2021 ending, Eckard recently joined Nokia Today podcast host Tyler Kern to discuss the latest trends in the telecommunications industry and what may lie ahead in 2022.
The telecommunications industry used to be a “layered cake,” as Eckard described. Everyone in the market was responsible for something, whether that was chipsets, product components, product creators, or service providers. When the iPhone era arrived, services decoupled, causing these layers to interconnect.
Decoupling brings concerns with reliability, security and who will make everything work while providing performance, speed, scalability, and centralization. “At the end of the day, the big challenges we are seeing is who actually owns that customer?” Eckard said. “Because in the past, these service providers were the ones who truly owned those customers. Now, with the webscale companies coming in such as Amazon and Microsoft, they all have such a huge and immense suite of resources, of applications and tools that they are now opening up for others to build upon,” he continued.
The main innovation challenge is how well teams, companies and individuals will bring things to market and execute them. Consumer acceptance is the easy part. Eckard stated, “The pace of acceptance of innovation, the acceptance of new technology into those spaces is just phenomenal.” Obsolescence of rapidly certain technologies also presents the challenge of how to carry data forward and not lose it. Eckard also touched on a dilemma that innovators face: How will they address disrupted technologies versus sustained ones? Large companies will need to bring technologies to scale to allow sustenance.
For more information on the current trends and state of the telecommunications industry, visit nokia.com or subscribe to the Nokia Today podcast on Apple iTunes or Spotify.
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Missing episodes?
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First, it was 3G, then 4G, now 5G, and now — you guessed it! — around 2030, the world will see the launch of 6G.
Nokia Today Host Tyler Kern spoke with Grace Koh, vice president of legislative affairs at Nokia, and Devaki Chandramouli, Next G Alliance (NGA) Steering Group co-chair.
Technology leaders will continue enhancing 5G for life-saving services and increasing economic benefit for consumers. Concurrently, leaders are looking at foundational requirements for 6G. Chandramouli said, “6G is envisioned to serve as a network that takes us from connectivity to togetherness, information to knowledge, and effectiveness to purpose.”
According to Chandramouli, the NGA will help accomplish this prediction through its purpose of advancing U.S. technology by bringing together industry players to drive innovation and cooperate with other international organizations. The NGA is divided into a full-members group, steering group, six working groups and two committees. The full-members group sets strategy and policies while the steering group oversees strategy implementation, provides steering recommendations and oversees the working groups. The working groups have various specific responsibilities.
Koh is a member of the policy committee, which sets a regulatory environment by interfacing with government and encouraging rules, laws and regulations that encourage innovation in the 6G world. “It’s very exciting to be able to show the government how they can participate in coordinating, leading and contributing to day-to-day activities like 6G development,” Koh shared.
As for the future, Koh stated: “By working together, of course we can accelerate innovation and leverage the research to solve the challenges and help the U.S. attain tech leadership but also develop 6G technology for the good of the mankind.”
The Nokia Today podcast is available on Spotify, Apple iTunes, and Google Podcast. It is also viewable on Nokia’s website.
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First, it was 3G, then 4G, now 5G, and now — you guessed it! — around 2030, the world will see the launch of 6G.
Nokia Today Host Tyler Kern spoke with Grace Koh, vice president of legislative affairs at Nokia, and Devaki Chandramouli, Next G Alliance (NGA) Steering Group co-chair.
Technology leaders will continue enhancing 5G for life-saving services and increasing economic benefit for consumers. Concurrently, leaders are looking at foundational requirements for 6G. Chandramouli said, “6G is envisioned to serve as a network that takes us from connectivity to togetherness, information to knowledge, and effectiveness to purpose.”
According to Chandramouli, the NGA will help accomplish this prediction through its purpose of advancing U.S. technology by bringing together industry players to drive innovation and cooperate with other international organizations. The NGA is divided into a full-members group, steering group, six working groups and two committees. The full-members group sets strategy and policies while the steering group oversees strategy implementation, provides steering recommendations and oversees the working groups. The working groups have various specific responsibilities.
Koh is a member of the policy committee, which sets a regulatory environment by interfacing with government and encouraging rules, laws and regulations that encourage innovation in the 6G world. “It’s very exciting to be able to show the government how they can participate in coordinating, leading and contributing to day-to-day activities like 6G development,” Koh shared.
As for the future, Koh stated: “By working together, of course we can accelerate innovation and leverage the research to solve the challenges and help the U.S. attain tech leadership but also develop 6G technology for the good of the mankind.”
The Nokia Today podcast is available on Spotify, Apple iTunes, and Google Podcast. It is also viewable on Nokia’s website.
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Digital transformation in the workplace can be complicated, however, it is necessary, as digital ecosystems will account for more than $60 trillion by 2025, according to data from McKinsey. No matter their thoughts, investing in digital technology will be critical to keeping companies relevant.
On this episode of the podcast, Host Tyler Kern spoke with Arquelle Shaw, Senior Vice President of Americas Sales at Equinix, a digital infrastructure company that interconnects industry-leading organizations in finance, manufacturing, mobility, transportation, government, healthcare, and education across a cloud-first world. They talked about the role of critical infrastructure in digital transformation.
“Our platform, which is built based on a number of factors: Data centers, our backbone, and also our digital services, such as Network Edge, enables our customers to launch their services globally in a very rapid manner in an agile way, and to really leap ahead with confidence in their digital transformation,” Shaw explained.
Navigating any sort of digital transformation can be complex. This causes many companies to evaluate where their starting point is, and unfortunately most find that they don’t have the technology and network capable of supporting these transformations when they change their business.
“A lot of companies tell us their strategy is fragmented, and we really saw that when COVID started,” Shaw said. “They just didn’t have a plan, or they had a plan that was more visionary.”
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Digital transformation in the workplace can be complicated, however, it is necessary, as digital ecosystems will account for more than $60 trillion by 2025, according to data from McKinsey. No matter their thoughts, investing in digital technology will be critical to keeping companies relevant.
On this episode of the podcast, Host Tyler Kern spoke with Arquelle Shaw, Senior Vice President of Americas Sales at Equinix, a digital infrastructure company that interconnects industry-leading organizations in finance, manufacturing, mobility, transportation, government, healthcare, and education across a cloud-first world. They talked about the role of critical infrastructure in digital transformation.
“Our platform, which is built based on a number of factors: Data centers, our backbone, and also our digital services, such as Network Edge, enables our customers to launch their services globally in a very rapid manner in an agile way, and to really leap ahead with confidence in their digital transformation,” Shaw explained.
Navigating any sort of digital transformation can be complex. This causes many companies to evaluate where their starting point is, and unfortunately most find that they don’t have the technology and network capable of supporting these transformations when they change their business.
“A lot of companies tell us their strategy is fragmented, and we really saw that when COVID started,” Shaw said. “They just didn’t have a plan, or they had a plan that was more visionary.”
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Blazing a path forward means learning lessons from the past. And UScellular follows that sage advice, as Kim Kerr, Senior VP, Enterprise Sales and Operations for UScellular, attested to during her recent stop by Nokia Today and her chat with host Tyler Kern.
With 25 years in the telecom industry, Kerr’s seen and learned quite a few lessons. One of the first lessons she mentioned is that, no matter how long one’s worked in an industry, new opportunities will always provide surprising and enlightening changes.
Another lesson Kerr said was of vital importance was to make sure she woke up every day going to work doing something she loved to do at a job; she recognized who they were, what they were about and whose values aligned with hers.
“As it turned out, I hit the trifecta of goodness coming into UScellular,” Kerr said.
Kerr said it is an exciting time for UScellular to build, grow and transform into a world-class business sales organization. “And when you say, build, grow and transform, normally, companies either build and grow, or you’re building and transforming; it’s like one or the other,” Kerr said. “We’re doing all of it. So, that involves expanding channels on the business side. It involves going into segmentation and specialization. It’s this incredible opportunity to lean into IoT, what’s happening to that industry, and emerging technologies like 5G. How do we grow that? It’s just very exciting.”
UScellular sees the potential for many different opportunities, and Kerr said they are leaving no stone unturned in capitalizing on these many avenues for growth. As a tier 4 company in 21 states, Kerr said they were taking a hyper-local approach to capitalize on these opportunities.
“Our focus continues to be serving and supporting local communities to provide a fast and reliable network,” Kerr said.
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Blazing a path forward means learning lessons from the past. And UScellular follows that sage advice, as Kim Kerr, Senior VP, Enterprise Sales and Operations for UScellular, attested to during her recent stop by Nokia Today and her chat with host Tyler Kern.
With 25 years in the telecom industry, Kerr’s seen and learned quite a few lessons. One of the first lessons she mentioned is that, no matter how long one’s worked in an industry, new opportunities will always provide surprising and enlightening changes.
Another lesson Kerr said was of vital importance was to make sure she woke up every day going to work doing something she loved to do at a job; she recognized who they were, what they were about and whose values aligned with hers.
“As it turned out, I hit the trifecta of goodness coming into UScellular,” Kerr said.
Kerr said it is an exciting time for UScellular to build, grow and transform into a world-class business sales organization. “And when you say, build, grow and transform, normally, companies either build and grow, or you’re building and transforming; it’s like one or the other,” Kerr said. “We’re doing all of it. So, that involves expanding channels on the business side. It involves going into segmentation and specialization. It’s this incredible opportunity to lean into IoT, what’s happening to that industry, and emerging technologies like 5G. How do we grow that? It’s just very exciting.”
UScellular sees the potential for many different opportunities, and Kerr said they are leaving no stone unturned in capitalizing on these many avenues for growth. As a tier 4 company in 21 states, Kerr said they were taking a hyper-local approach to capitalize on these opportunities.
“Our focus continues to be serving and supporting local communities to provide a fast and reliable network,” Kerr said.
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America’s network landscape is quickly evolving thanks to new technologies like 5G. It is redefining the way we do business, learn and connect with each other. But we’re not there yet.
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What is private wireless, how does it works, and how does it differ from other solutions? Is it ready to pave the way for an even more expansive 5G rollout?
You’ve come to the right place for answers.
On this episode of Nokia Today, host Tyler Kern was joined by Shawn Sparling, Head of Canada Enterprise Sales at Nokia, to explore all things private wireless, from what it is at a basic level and what it’s for all the way to how it can enable greater automation throughout facilities its long-term growth potential.
“When we look at private wireless, it’s essentially having a reliable, secure, private 4G or 5G network that allows an enterprise to control the system, deliver the performance they want to, and keep their data controlled within their network with the security they want and the quality of service they want,” Sparling said. “It gives the enterprise a lot of flexibility to add any kind of device that they want to.”
These networks are useful across many industries, including early adopters in mining and rail systems to today’s manufacturing, utilities and education organizations and beyond.
“There really isn’t an industry where we haven’t seen it,” Sparling said.
Private networks can help elevate organizations’ digital transformations by providing support for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and a wide ecosystem of solutions industries are using to meet the future head on.
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The need for broadband in rural America didn’t originate in the pandemic, but it certainly put a spotlight on it. How have these carriers fared, and what’s the impact on their community?
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Blair Levin and Edward Smith II discuss the Lewis Latimer Plan, the 2010 National Broadband Plan update.
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Blair Levin and Edward Smith II discuss the Lewis Latimer Plan, the 2010 National Broadband Plan update.
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In October, Nokia and Greener Acres Canada, Inc. announced a powerful partnership. E-waste refers to discarded devices, from smartphones to computers, tablets and gaming consoles, that traditionally have found their way into landfills. Now, with this partnership, the two companies will use the nearly 50,000 tons of this waste produced by the city of Ontario each year to sustainably create smarter cities.
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Confidence Paves Career Paths with Sandy Motley, President of Fixed Networks, Nokia
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As Nokia Today’s Women in Tech series marches on, hosts Tyler Kern and Marriane Strobel, Nokia Vice President of North America Customer Marketing and Communications, were joined by Andrea Austin, Vice President of Sales for Nokia Software for a discussion on a topic Austin has plenty of experience in – women in sales roles.
A study cited in Forbes reports that women represent 39% of the workforce in sales roles, yet that percentage decreases as seniority increases. That means women aren’t penetrating the upper echelons of revenue organizations and sales roles.
This isn’t for a lack of talent, passion or capability, Austin said.
“I think one of the myths might be that women are risk-averse to the high-stakes jobs,” she said. “I personally think that’s nonsense. It’s not a skill set or a trait. There are certain attributes when you’re in these high-stakes jobs, and I think they’re somewhat genderless.”
Those attributes include acquiring and cultivating customers, being able to fail and “fail forward” by learning from the scenario, and being comfortable in your skin and being able to “speak your truth.” Those are all attributes Austin knows don’t depend on gender.
To be able to achieve that final trait of being comfortable in your skin, Austin said she has a variety of best practices and helpful tips. The first and most prominent, however, is that women “have the confidence [they’ve] earned.”
“If you’re in that room, take a seat at the table. Don’t sit in the back,” she said. “Have the confidence to speak up, and, as I said before, speak that truth. You have an opinion. You’ve earned the right to be in that room.”
Some changes are being implemented to help women take that seat at the table, though Austin said even a base-level awareness and intention to do better has helped propel women toward the positions they’ve earned.
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Marianne Strobel talked to Amy Wheelus, vice president of architecture and strategic planning at AT&T, about her journey as a woman in the world of STEM, a field traditionally dominated by men.
Amy began her post-high school education at a junior college, a path which she recommended to others to help with preparation for life at a university.
“I think that Our community college systems, or junior college systems, are great facilitators and enablers for people to help, you know, whether you’re needing to fill a gap in your skillset, you’re needing to mature a little bit, or you just really don’t know what you want to go do, it gives you some more time to try to figure that out. It gives you time in a smaller environment to help you be more successful,” Amy said.
While things may be changing for the better in some measure these days, Amy’s time in the STEM program at Georgia Tech found her immersed in a disproportionately male-leaning classroom. “…most of my classes were two-thirds men and a third women. The ratio at Georgia Tech was eight-to-one, and that’s greatly changed over time and I’m very happy at the progress we’re making in putting more women in and graduating more women in STEM fields, but it was very much a man’s world,” she said.
Marianne asked Amy for any advice she could give to other young women currently on their own journeys in STEM education.
“I think the number one thing that women especially need to remember is you can do what you put your mind to. Don’t look at a job and think ‘well I don’t know if I can do that.’ Or don’t look at a list of requirements for a job and, because there’s one on there maybe you don’t have the right skillset for, dismiss that as not a possibility,” Amy said.
“We’ve heard it, we hear it, there’s research that proves it that women have a tendency to only go after jobs where they feel like they check every box on the page, and men don’t have that same tendency. I think that’s one of the areas where I would advocate that we need to be more like men. I don’t advocate that in a lot of space. I think we need to be women. We need to be women and showcase our uniqueness and our diversity and that will make all of us better. But in this particular area, you gotta be confident. You gotta go after those jobs that maybe stretch jobs. Because what’s the worst that will happen?” -
On the debut of Women in Tech by Nokia, Joanne Moretti, Founder and CEO of JCurve Digital, joined host Tyler Kern to share her best tips for women already leading the way in technology or looking to further their careers and advance into key leadership positions.
JCurve Digital delivers clients “Integrated Commercial Excellence” solutions, helping product and commercial leaders “create a high velocity, highly effective ‘commercial value chain’ that breaks down siloes between product managers, marketers and sales teams.”
Moretti’s top five leadership tips for women in tech are:
1. Create a Strategic Plan and Be a Leader Regardless of Your Title: Leadership isn’t determined solely by position or a title. Anyone can lead, and it comes from passion.
2. Collaborate and Partner with Others: It’s time to stop “looking out for No. 1.” The partnerships and overall ecosystem of an organization can drive growth.
3. We’re Moving from a Product to an Experience Economy: Consumers are now more focused on the service and experience surrounding products than simply the products, themselves. You need to adapt to that.
4. Self-Reflection and Self-Awareness: It’s critical to step outside yourself and view your words and actions as a third party would to get an accurate picture of how successful you were in communicating, acting, etc.
5. Build Your Personal Network: Your personal network is an asset and should be treated as such. It has the potential to help establish incredible opportunities and results.
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What Is Open RAN, and Why Is It Important?
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