TeleWorld and Samsung will be oriented to Industry connect and/or smart city B2B private networks
By: Nitisha Dubey
March 3, 2020
Oh! Telecom industry is undergoing mind-boggling transformations. From the TELCOs to network integrators and designers all are set to explore possibilities of new generation 5G networks. Amidst all, Samsung recently acquired TeleWorld and a telecom industry veteran Franco Zaro, Director of Business Development at Valid ratifies it to be not just another acquisition but a strategic move by Samsung to underline itself a leader in the 5G space. During the e-interaction he mentioned, TeleWorld and Samsung will be oriented to Industry connect and/or smart city B2B private networks. There is a highly interesting and huge field to explore for companies like Samsung and Teleworld, considering there are currently few vendor options such as Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei. Lots more interesting revelations in this below edited nub.
Q. Please share your experience as a Director, business development at Valid.
Franco Zaro, Director of Business Development, Valid
I have over 20 years of hands-on experience in the telecom space. Prior to my current position, I worked in the engineering field as a senior engineer for Nokia Networks. Following that, I made my move to Valid, where I started out leading the sales engineering teams. This experience led me to my current position as director of business development at Valid. In this role, I lead our initiatives related to promoting and commercializing our software/solutions. My focus is on converged technologies within three verticals: mobile solutions for payments and identification, RFID tracking for security solutions, and telecom.
Q. Given your experience, you have seen a paradigm shift in the telecom industry, any anecdotes you can provide of your experience or trends shaping the telecom industry?
My experience in the telecom space has been a long ride, and I have certainly witnessed the change of paradigms and the constant evolution of technology. If I focus on my experience in telecommunications and go back to the nineties — I was part of the massive implementation of cellphone networks. At that time, companies like Ericsson and Nokia were overwhelmed by massive requests and dancing with millions on revenue and communications were based more on hardware (HW), which is very different from the current state. Consider, HW is a single server and all system interactions are managed by software that maximizes HW capacity. This led to the fall of Nokia phones after the arrival of the Smartphones and the rise of Apple, evolving the network with LTE and now 5G. In the past, we had ideas on how to connect the people and the world in general, but we were always limited by the network capacity — the rise of 5G eliminates that limitation.
Q. How was the year 2019 for the global telecom industry? What will be your future plans for the growth of the industry?
In 2019, the telecom space saw the consolidation of basically 10 years of previous changes. Telcos changed their commercial models by reinventing and optimizing their business with a focus on B2B services. They also improved quality and pricing in an effort to retain clients that were faltering in their loyalty. In my opinion, for the upcoming years, convergence will be key to integrating systems, networks and processes within a very connected world.
Q. What approaches do you think Teleworld/Samsung will take to streamline end-to-end support of 5G?
Looking from a network point of view, it is likely that TeleWorld and Samsung will be oriented to Industry connect and/or smart city B2B private networks. There is a highly interesting and huge field to explore for companies like Samsung and Teleworld, considering there are currently few vendor options such as Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei. There is also a good chance Samsung/TeleWorld could be an alternative to large providers that have captured the initial market-share.
Q.What is your opinion of TeleWorld’s network design, testing and optimization services?
I foresee that the world will change in the next decade from being a communication-reactive based operation to a highly integrated real-time ecosystem. The adoption of this concept will create a huge need for large companies like Samsung to partner with companies like TeleWorld to assure success in terms of customer experience, project fulfillment and user adoption.
Q. What are the main loopholes which may create problems for the 5G market globally?
Regulations seem to be the main pain nowadays as society is not entirely ready and still learning how to coexist with an integrated environment. Especially an environment that has the ability to collect evidence of topics that we may consider private. I believe the concept of privacy should be re-evaluated based on motives and triggers and be formalized.
Q. Do you think this acquisition will help set Samsung apart in the race to lead the 5G smartphone market?
Samsung already has a strong presence in the smartphone market and I believe this decision is more oriented to consolidate B2B-focused businesses, as Samsung devices have a natural advantage in this space. The B2B U.S. market is huge and this move could push foreign providers, such as Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei out of the picture. By doing so, the U.S., via Teleworld Solutions, could have an additional presence and access to 5G networks. However, I do want to note that patents, owned by Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia could impact the cost.
Q. Building 5G infrastructure will be expensive, what initial investments might take time to materialize?
Initial investments that will likely take time to materialize due to a larger period of rollout include patents, development, equipment and highly educated workers.
Original article can be read here. English Only.
