Senza Fili Sparring Partners

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Opinionated conversations in telecoms with Monica Paolini, Senza Fili, and her guests. Networks should be open, and so should our discussions on them.

  1. 1d ago

    Rethinking in-person events in the age of AI and human slop. With Keith Dyer, The Mobile Network

    I don’t think I am the only one annoyed by the homogenization of content, driven by a combination of social media, reduced attention spans, AI and human slop, and strict PR and corporate messaging policies. The side effect of this is that in-person human interaction is becoming more valuable and worth cultivating. This is why I invited Keith Dyer at The Mobile Network to talk about this on Sparring Partners. He has launched a new in-person conference with a format that puts attendee interaction at the forefront. In our conversation, we discussed how industry events have evolved as we become submerged in (and want to avoid) repetitive, shallow content increasingly generated or over-edited by AI. How to preserve independent and diverse views at events and more generally in the published content How to make events more interactive and more valuable to those attending them How should we think of genuine connections beyond traditional metrics Mentions: Check out Keith’s next event on NTN and Sparring Partners in-person meetings You can watch the video of this podcast and read the transcript on Sparring Partners’ Substack

  2. Sep 4

    Does physical AI need private networks? With Gianluca Verin at Apeiroon

    Physical AI can impress us with an outstanding performance that rivals or surpasses human capabilities in a few tasks. Over time, AI-driven robots, drones and other devices will expand the range of tasks they can perform with accuracy, reliability and cost- and energy-efficiency. But to achieve this, they need levels of latency, reliability and security that today’s public networks do not support. For many use cases, physical AI will need a private network infrastructure that may or may not be managed by mobile operators. In most countries, mobile operators will not be the main infrastructure players. I sat down with Gianluca Verin, CEO and Co-Founder of Apeiroon, to examine how we should plan and operate mobile networks to successfully and safely operate physical AI in the real world at scale. Gianluca has accumulated in-depth, practical experience on private networks for a long time since he started Athonet, and explains why many physical AI use cases require dedicated, deterministic, edge connectivity, and why centralized cloud architectures are not sufficient: How to think about network requirements as physical AI gets deployed Edge AI, mobile AI, mobile AI bubbles as the foundation for scalable physical AI deployments Physical AI innovation in Europe versus USA: An opportunity that Europe cannot afford to lose To sum it all up, Gianluca said: "A stationary robot is an IT problem. A moving robot is a network problem." To go deeper, check the white paper that Gianluca mentions. And if you want to find out where Apeiroon comes from, see Carlo Rovelli, Anaximander and the nature of science, it is a beautiful and beautifully written short book. You can watch the video of this podcast and read the transcript on Sparring Partners on Substack or listen to it on your podcast platform. More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

  3. Aug 30

    Ambition to innovate: Deep tech in Europe and the UK. With Rupert Baines, serial entrepreneur

    Innovation in Europe (including the UK) is routinely presented as suffering from all sorts of limitations, with funding and excessive regulation as the top culprits. Yes, things could be much better, but there is, and continues to be, a strong record of innovation in Europe. In this Sparring Partners, Rupert Baines, serial entrepreneur, now working with RANsemi, Forefront RF, Luffy AI, Semiconductor Catapult, UKESF and more, argues (and I agree with him) that Europe lacks the ambition to leverage its talent and resources to the extent that they deserve: What is Europe doing right in deep tech? Injecting serendipity to promote technology clusters Encouraging late-stage venture funding to encourage organic growth instead of early sales Balancing the requirements and tradeoffs of sovereignty, openness, and international collaboration You can watch the video of this podcast and read the transcript on Sparring Partners on Substack or listen to it on your podcast platform. In our conversation, we mention a previous podcast with David Cleevely and one with Mike Short, previous guests of Sparring Partners. You can listen to the podcasts on Sparring Partners too. Other links: Rupert's interview, Arthur Mensch, Mistral CEO, interview in The Economist, and Cambridge Tech Week More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

  4. Aug 23

    Can we make 6G (and 5G) globally affordable? With Mike Short at UK Telecoms Lab and AWTG

    6G has to be affordable and resilient, not just for the most advanced, high-GDP markets, but globally. This requires meeting a wide range of requirements, supporting the coexistence of multiple technologies, reducing the cost of providing connectivity, and making it affordable for all. In this Sparring Partners, I talked with Mike Short, Chairman at UK Telecom Labs and AWTG, about what it will take to achieve these goals through: Multi-technology approaches, including Wi-Fi and satellite Network sharing, neutral hosts and private networks New approaches to regulation and cooperation Designing networks for resiliency and redundancy Mike Short is also chairing the upcoming Cambridge Tech Week.   You can watch the video of this podcast on Sparring Partners on Substack More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

  5. Aug 14

    The changing role of mobile operators. With Itsuma Tanaka at DOCOMO Euro-Labs

    The mobile market is maturing as a vertical, limiting new revenue opportunities, but technological innovation also creates opportunities to improve network efficiency and capabilities (while increasing complexity, however). In this Sparring Partners, I talked with Itsuma Tanaka, CEO of Docomo Euro-Labs, about how MNOs in Japan and elsewhere are changing in response to user expectations, new competition and new technology. Among the topics we discussed: The role of basic connectivity and new services that expand it AI optimization, satellite, ISAC Different impact of geopolitical environment in Japan, Europe and the US Reducing network complexity to facilitate adoption of new technologies You can watch the video of this podcast on Sparring Partners on Substack More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

  6. Aug 7

    London, Berlin, New York: Where is indoor connectivity at its best and worst? With Luke Kehoe at Ookla

    We all know that most traffic (80% or even more) comes from indoors and most of it goes through Wi-Fi (another 80%). This means that cellular is not doing very well indoors, which is something we experience all the time. Yet, reliable data on how bad indoor coverage is has been hard to get. Luke Kehoe, Lead Analyst at Ookla, has embarked on a project to measure indoor connectivity accurately and has done so in London, Berlin and New York. In this Sparring Partners, we discuss the methodology, the results and the implications of the research. Not surprisingly, the results confirm that, yes, indoor coverage is poor, but possibly even poorer than we (or at least I) would have guessed. It is not a name-and-shame exercise though (spoiler: London does not come out too well), because the reasons and the distribution of bad indoor coverage vary across locations and reveal a diverse set of challenges and ways to deal with them. But I won’t say more. This is a discussion packed with new information and food for thought, so watch or listen to it. You can watch the video of this podcast on Sparring Partners on Substack Read Luke’s article on his preliminary results here.

  7. Jul 31

    Quantum to scale AI and solve token economy bottlenecks. With Julio Gonzalez-Saenz at Vodafone

    AI is power hungry. The token economy is both a necessity to allocate limited resources and monetize AI, but also imposes constraints on its adoption. What’s the solution to this? In this Sparring Partners, Julio Gonzalez-Saenz, AI Champion at Vodafone UK, makes the case for quantum as a technology that allows us to scale the adoption of AI by reducing its computational and power requirements and limiting token-economy bottlenecks. The contribution of quantum in telecom networks: Optimize use of data center resources Overcome AI token anxiety Reduce GPU requirements Create new real-world use cases for AI Reduce energy consumption You can watch the video of this podcast on Sparring Partners on Substack More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

  8. Jul 20

    Data sharing and open interfaces for AI optimization. With Paul Patras at Net AI and the University of Edinburgh

    We know that AI models need high-quality, reliable data to produce good outcomes. But do operators have access to the data and can share it across vendors? Do we have the standards in place to facilitate this, and are they sufficient to share data reliably? In this episode of Sparring Partners, Paul Patras, CEO and Co-founder of NetAI and Professor of Mobile Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, works on these issues on a daily basis and takes us through how shared and synthetic data and standards are essential to effective AI deployment in the telco networks, and what to do when the necessary is not accessible. What we talked about: Why is it difficult and yet necessary to share data Standards are crucial, but not sufficient Collaboration within the ecosystem is crucial to success Digital twins and synthetic data are a valuable complement to network data   You can watch the video of this podcast on Sparring Partners on Substack More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com

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About

Opinionated conversations in telecoms with Monica Paolini, Senza Fili, and her guests. Networks should be open, and so should our discussions on them.

Information

  • Creator
    SenzaFili
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    113
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Senza Fili Sparring Partners

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