DASpedia 5G – An In-Building and Private Networks Event

Posted on February 29th, 2024

It was a great opportunity to level set with relationships that extend nearly 30 years, several who are now key decision makers within the Tier-1 mobile network operator ecosystem. The Tier-1 mobile network operators I’m referencing include Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Dish Networks the potential 4th Nationwide US mobile network operator.

Event Summary Blog

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile were present, with Verizon and AT&T providing in-depth panel discussions which featured real network challenges and resolutions, with key partners presenting solutions. Verizon’s panel was moderated by VP of Network Phillip French whose organization I’ve been partnering with over the past 10 years. Phillip’s organization covers the Western half of the US and consist of Regional Executive Network Engineering Directors who along with the RAN, and Operations departments; are responsible for Verizon’s 4G and 5G network planning, design, performance, and operations. Additionally, Verizon’s Maintenance Engineering Principal presented as well. Dennis McColl who is a former colleague during my engineering days at Verizon deploying their 3G CDMA, EVDO, and 4G network.

Highlights

5G deployment and The Evolution to SA/Stand Alone – Verizon continues to progress towards 5G SA however, cost is the #1 factor impacting progress, and without increased investment it will continue to progress slower than expected as the investment involves implementing new 5G feature sets that require cloud implementation to achieve full cloud native 5G SA. The mobile network operators have not seen the ROI, mostly because they’ve miscalculated the required investment requirement to bring monolithic VMs to the cloud.

Maintenance Engineering is still experiencing Interference issues which typically cost $3000 per truck roll often leading to the discovery of subpar macro installations inducing PIM/Passive Intermod or dirty Fiber endpoints. This is something that is a potential opportunity when data is available to utilize for development of applications to #1 identify the interference source and #2 identify the impacting macro tower, channel, PCI, and frequency. Having the data, one could leverage generative AI to develop an application to reduce cost incurred from the existing manual process of sending a technician and/or engineer to investigate.

Companies to Know

- Morrison and Hershfield https://morrisonhershfield.com/services/ – I met with the National Director of Telecom, Technology, and Mission Critical Infrastructure. They are a 1200 staff Engineering House which provides engineering services right up our alley across multiple industries. We plan to explore collaborating at the upcoming Connect X event as a guest panelist in May. Stay tuned…

- MS Benbow and Associates – https://msbenbow.com/ - Midday finishing up lunch I realized I was at the Nokia lunch table along with one of their partners. I noticed the gentleman was very familiar along with an Australian accent. Within 5 minutes of our conversation, I realized we had very similar focuses and solid alignment with overall Gemini Prime focuses across telecom, mission critical, controls, digital infrastructure, planning, and design. MS Benbow and Associates has been the chief engineering consultant on multiple highly visible projects including Chase Stadium, Paycor Stadium, Mercedes Benz, Hospitals, Education, Smart MCC and PLC Controls Systems, and more, with a niche focus on large Sports and Entertainment venues.

-- MS Core engineering services: Connectivity, Electrical Power Systems, Instrumentation & Controls, Design & Drafting Operational Technology Cybersecurity

For a single day event I was pleased with the conversations and rekindling relationships for future opportunities. More to share soon on the state of the 5G Digital Transformation & Private Cloud Networks!

Sincerely,

Anthony McCray | Consulting Partner