Spotlight on FYUZ 2023 | TelecomDrive.com
FYUZ has already become the landmark event for the industry showcasing the latest developments in the Open & Disaggregated Network Solutions space. Acting as a perfect converging point for the global telecoms and vendor communities to discuss their future agenda – this year the event is happening in the interesting city of Madrid, the event is coming back at the same venue, with an improved and knockout format, and a transition to a new theme of sustainability.
Vishal Mathur, Global Head of Engagement, TIP interacts with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com on the upcoming FYUZ 2023 in Madrid and what can we expect as part of the event.
How do you look at the upcoming FYUZ 2023? What are some of the key focus areas for this year’s event?
FYUZ continues to be the landmark event for the industry showcase & debate on Open & Disaggregated Network Solutions. We are looking forward to coming back to Madrid – at the same venue, with an improved and knockout format, and a transition to a new theme of sustainability.
We’re excited to see what’s changed since FYUZ 2022 and MWC.
I’m looking forward to hearing more from the pioneers across the industry on what has been commercially deployed, but more importantly what still needs to be done to scale Open RAN, OpenWiFi, Open Transport and where the pockets of new innovation are opening up.
Over the past year, the industry has also seen a broader set of Governments pushing forward on their supplier diversification strategies and opportunities to develop global approaches towards scaling a diverse telecom supplier ecosystem.
I’m also looking forward to TIP weaving its points of value in supporting the industry agenda – creating more impact, providing clear signposts of carrier grade readiness of multi vendor solutions, and offering a facility for community based innovation.
How is this edition going to be different from last year’s FYUZ?
A larger audience, a stronger speaker line up, an agenda that is more balanced and focused. What we’re not letting go of is the experience that FYUZ delivers (as a differentiated event platform), the ambience for networking and doing business, and the warm, and majestic feel that IFEMA lends well as a venue.
Over the last few years, the Open RAN movement has gained tremendous traction within the global telecoms community. As a flagship event for TIP. How do you ensure that the movement is accelerated to the next level?
The TIP Open RAN community is growing stronger and driving an industry relevant roadmap of innovation and solutioning. FYUZ will continue to have Open RAN as an agenda item (along with other flagship programs such as OOPT and OpenWiFi, as well as those that some might say sit on the sidelines including NTCS, TelCo Cloud and Private Networks).
Open RAN as a technology domain remains the most complex, and although we will hear of some great examples of commercial trials from our community, there is still some more work to do to truly make multi-vendor, interoperable, integratable Open RAN accessible to not only the large CSPs in the world, but also the tier 2 and 3 players in market. We need to work towards building trust and confidence in the vendor configurations but also lower the barriers for procurement and deployment.
TIP is there to catalyse and support the industry effort, and help to resolve some of the challenges such as proving out various configurations for Open RAN fronthaul sub-system or Open RAN Cloud, role of SIs, reskill/upskill transformation within organisations, lowering the cost of hardware.
And let’s not forget there’s more necessary innovation required in Open RAN such as further disaggregation at the chipset and radio level, network performance & energy management through RIC & xAPPs / rAPPs, and orchestration and automation models in Open RAN.
What are some of the big innovations and disruptions that we can look forward to while attending the event?
Some of the big innovations will be to see / hear from experts on how Open Network Solutions are actually being commercially deployed – whether Enterprise OpenWiFi solutions in multi-dwelling, campus networks, or public outdoor; or Open RAN in public and private network deployment scenarios, or perhaps Open Transport solutions for midhaul or longhaul capacity. There potentially could be more showcases of certification ready labs as well as virtual labs being demonstrated as go to places for end-to-end testing.
Certainly more effort will be placed on skills development in the industry, particularly through the TIP and Accenture collaboration, TIP Academy.
Please share with us your future plans for the event? What can we expect in the coming year?
There should be more to see from Governments that are putting forward grants towards driving Open Network innovation, interop and carrier grade testing, and building national supplier capacity in new areas of work. TIP looks forward to supporting these Government efforts and acting as a prime for building industry capability and capacity.
The article is published in the June 2023 issue of Disruptive Telecoms.
