The Five Nine

We’re flipping the script this week and talking not to the people building AI infrastructure but to one of the people trying to help implement it in the wilds of retail. Forum3 Co-CEO and former Starbucks Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman talks why GenAI is different, how on-device AI could change the game entirely, and whether he thinks there is actually a bubble. #AI #artificialintelligence #retail #Apple #Google #Siri

See ...

AI is massively shaking up the multi-cloud landscape. And we’re here to talk about how.

As cloud adoption kicked into gear a few years back, it wasn’t enough to have just one cloud. Suddenly enterprises had deployments scattered here, there and everywhere. That, of course, made for a management nightmare. And just as vendors and enterprises started to get their arms around the problem, AI entered the scene.

Suffice to s...

What does the future hold for Verizon with a new CEO at the helm? Does the $42.5 billion BEAD program have staying power? Can telcos fend off a space-based market invasion?

A new year brings a fresh start, but there are some trends that are bound to carry over from 2025. We gathered the whole Fierce Network crew to get their top takes on what's in store for the year to come in the wireless, wireline, AI and cloud realms.

#AI #cloud...

AI isn’t just transforming how we live, work and play, it’s also overhauling the cloud and data center market. It’s not just about the big three anymore – we’re entering the era of the alternative hyperscaler. Vultr’s CMO Kevin Cochrane and Futuriom founder and chief analyst Scott Raynovich talk what's coming down the pipe in 2026. #AI #cloud #GPU #neocloud #altscaler

See omnystudio.com/listener f...

Nvidia made headlines in October when it announced plans to invest $1 billion in telecom vendor Nokia to develop AI-RAN solutions that use its GPUs. But do GPUs even make sense for AI-RAN? We sat down with Orange's Atoosa Hatefi and Dell'Oro Group's Stefan Pongratz to dig into the different flavors of AI-RAN, what would compel telecom operators to spring for GPUs and what the overall market forecast looks like. 

See omnystudio....

AWS walked into Las Vegas with a full house of cards. The cloud titan absolutely unloaded with a series of announcements spanning silicon, software and networking at its annual re:Invent conference. And the key takeaway? It’s not playing catchup on AI anymore…it’s leading the pack.

Fierce Network's Diana Goovaerts and Elizabeth Coyne sat down with Moor Insights and Strategy's Jason Andersen and Tekonyx Fou...

First, there was machine learning. Then, generative AI. Now, we’re in the midst of the agentic AI revolution. But agentic AI is a waypoint rather than an endpoint. So, what’s next? The answer is physical AI. 

But what is physical AI, in practical terms? What is it good for, how mature is the technology, what kinds of networks will it need and how can we all prepare for what’s coming? Nvidia and Nokia have ans...

Telcos are DROWNING in debt. No, not financial debt, though they do have some of that. We’re talking about crippling amounts of technical and data debt, which could keep telcos on the sidelines of the AI revolution.  

We’ll be looking at just how bad the situation is, what telcos need to do to make it right, whether they can move fast enough to ride the AI wave and what they stand to gain if they do. 

#te...

You may have seen one streak across the night sky. And there could be one hovering a few hundred miles above you right now. No, I’m talking about UFOs but satellites and more specifically, the thousands of Starlink satellites that have taken over our skies and changed the broadband landscape forever.  

Ookla’s Sue Marek and Joe Madden from Mobile Experts dig into how Starlink has helped thrust satellite techno...

Description: You’ve probably heard about quantum technology in news headlines, but what is it and what does it really mean for telcos? Fierce’s Masha Abarinova sits down with quantum networking leaders Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect, and Frank de Jong, Quantum Safe Network Lead at Orange Business, to delve into how operators are putting the technology to work. #quantum #qubits #connectivity #TechTalks #Networks 

See o...

In this sponsored episode of The Five Nine, Fierce Networks contributor Daniel Frankel sits down with Hemanth Sampath, VP of Engineering at Qualcomm, to explore how 6G will unlock new user-experiences and operator services.

Sampath outlines a shift from app-based smartphone content consumption to AI-agent driven, natural interactions – extending to AR glasses & wearables. This evolution will driv...

Speaking live from the 3GPP plenary meeting in Prague, Juan Montojo, Vice President of Technical Standards at Qualcomm Technologies, shares where mobile networks are headed as 6G development begins. Improving coverage, energy and spectral efficiency, and user experience are at the center of these early-stage efforts - all while reducing the cost to deliver data. 

A defining feature of 6G will be the integration of AI. Unlike 5...

This week we’re taking a look at the big bottleneck that could bring the AI revolution to a screeching halt: power.

AI requires a lot of high power chips deployed in a LOT of data centers. But while hyperscalers have plans to build up new data centers to support AI demand, they’ve run into power shortages in key areas. They’re particularly feeling the crunch in the U.S. So, we sat down with a pair of guests to fig...

This week, we sat down to unpack one of the biggest emerging concepts in the broadband space – the open access network. 

Open access, like any broadband network, is no cakewalk and comes with its own share of challenges. But it also presents underrated opportunities for the industry, particularly in the United States where the model is less often used.  

Utopia Fiber and Gigapower are two of just a handful of o...

Guest host Liz Coyne wrangled an exec from Nokia Bell Labs to talk about the company’s recent mission to the moon. The mission came as Nokia Bell Labs celebrated its 100th anniversary but the landing didn’t go quite as expected.  

Nokia’s Thierry Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia, tells Liz all about why the company is aiming for the moon in the first place, what it learned from t...