With MWC taking place this week in Barcelona, The Fast Mode ran a brief interview with Eugina Jordan, VP of Marketing at Parallel Wireless. As a leading vendor of Open RAN architecture, Parallel Wireless covers some of their achievements in the past year, their plans and showcases for MWC 2021 and their views on ALL G deployments in both rural and urban environments.
How does it feel to be back at MWC?
It feels comforting that things are slowly getting back to normal. With the COVID-19 pandemic it has been very difficult of course to meet our customers and other stakeholders in person, people want to stay connected though. Safety and health for everyone is our top priority. Our Parallel Wireless marketing team which is small in headcount yet each member is resilient and flexible, with team members in the U.K., Chicago and Massachusetts we quickly came together over MSTeams/Video and became digital thought leaders by creating a plethora of innovative thought leadership marketing and communication tools such as: Open RAN explainer videos, webinars, case studies, whitepapers, blogs, solution briefs, FAQS and educational materials such as the Open RAN e-book. In addition, we have developed an extensive social media following by creating the hashtag #OpenRANdailyfact on LinkedIn which has exploded with followers. And working closely with the our sales teams, product management, engineering and other key stakeholders across the company we have clinched customer wins such as; Millicom, Etisalat, Vodafone Ireland, IPT in Peru, and Orange to name a few.
Parallel Wireless at MWC 21
What’s your showcase theme this year, and what are the key technologies you will be exhibiting/discussing?
Parallel Wireless is working with a broad ecosystem of partners to deliver rapid innovation across hardware and software domains. Reimagine Today with the Vision of Tomorrow is the Parallel Wireless theme for this year’s Mobile World Congress event with two sub-themes of Deploy and Innovate. Our leading-edge demos with our broad ecosystem of partners include:
DEPLOY
- Enabling All Gs with Open RAN: At this demo we will showcase how with our broad ecosystem of partners Parallel Wireless can enable MNOs to deploy O-RANcompliant, cloud-native, Open RAN across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks.
- Open RAN reduces TCO: At this demowe will showcase how our Open RAN solutions utilize commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware powered with self-configuration and software automation tools which can reduce MNOs Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
INNOVATE
- New Services Faster with Automation: At our automation demo we will showcase how cloud-native state-of-the-art features such as RAN automation, self-configuration, hands free software testing, integration and delivery, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) enable scalability, flexibility, and innovation with the ability to launch new services faster.
- Maintain Legacy and Upgrade to 5G and beyond: At this demo we will showcase how with our software driven solutions, supporting multiple Gs from the same COTS server, innovation and upgradeability is seamless and efficient.
What’s your outlook for telecoms for the rest of 2021?
We are extremely optimistic about the future of telecommunications especially wireless networks for 2021 and beyond. With Open RAN solutions which are cost effective and easy and efficient to deploy, rural and urban environments are quickly enabled with ALL G - 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G connectivity. Parallel Wireless was recently named by Appledore research in their ‘Who’s Winning in Open RAN report’ as the most deployed vendor with many O-RAN Alliance, Open RAN successes over the last year with Mobile Network Operators from across the globe such as, Millicom in Colombia, Etisalat in Afghanistan, Indosat Ooredo in Indonesia, Hotspot in Nigeria, to name a few.
We are excited about the potential to connect the unconnected across the globe and enable leading edge services such as digital banking, e-learning, digital health, Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, autonomous driving, and so much more. The future is bright for telecommunications, bridging the digital divide and empowering economies across the globe.
