• The first half of 2023 has been choc full of major telco sector news
• Job cuts have featured prominently in our most popular headlines
• But there have been positive developments, including tech innovations, too

The editorial team at TelecomTV writes about a broad range of topics, technologies and companies each week, but which of the articles attracted the most attention from our readers during the first six months of this year? Based on the number of page views, here are our 10 most popular stories from the first half of 2023. 

1. Ericsson trims its software and services division

The giant Swedish vendor started the year by announcing plans to cut certain products and “exit certain subscale agreements” as part of its effort to help its Cloud Software and Services business unit “reach break-even in full-year 2023 on EBIT/EBITA level”. Read more. 

2. Vodafone unveils Open RAN 5G network-in-a-box

At a pre-MWC23 media and analyst briefing in London, the giant operator unveiled an Open RAN-compatible, 5G network-in-a-box, no bigger than a home Wi-Fi router. Yago Tenorio, Vodafone fellow and network architecture director, claimed the device could revolutionise the 5G private network market. Read more. 

3. Intel and Qualcomm are Mavenir’s new investors – sources

In May, TelecomTV exclusively revealed that networking chip giants Intel and Qualcomm are the “strategic ecosystem partners” that participated in the latest funding round for Open RAN and packet core vendor Mavenir. Read more. 

4. Regulatory opposition to the Broadcom-VMware merger grows – in the UK, Europe, the US and even in China

The omens were not good, at least in April, for Broadcom’s plan to acquire VMware for $61bn, as regulators around the world took a closer look at what the deal might mean for market competition and, in particular, what it might mean for Broadcom’s rivals that wanted to work closely with VMware on network virtualisation developments. Things have changed significantly in recent weeks as Broadcom has made assurances and concessions, so much so that even the European Commission has given the deal its blessing, but such approvals looked unlikely only months ago. Read more. 

5. Huawei is still the world’s biggest telecom equipment vendor

So much has changed in the telecom world in recent years, but some things stay the same… such as Huawei still being by far the largest telecom equipment vendor in the world despite the best efforts of the US authorities to squeeze the Chinese vendor’s supply chain and persuade other countries to exclude certain vendors from their national networks. In March, trusted research house Dell’Oro Group published its global telecom equipment report, which showed that Ericsson and Nokia have a very long way to go before they can ever take the crown from Huawei. Read more. 

6. Vodafone CTO: Network automation has saved us €500m in three years

Telcos have for years been talking about how the digitalisation and automation of day-to-day processes can help improve operational efficiencies and save money, but has that just been wishful thinking? Apparently not, according to Vodafone Group CTO Scott Petty, who in February quantified just what an impact these developments can make, highlighting that the company has saved €500m in operating and capital expenditures (opex and capex) over the past three years as a result of its digital operations efforts. Read more. 

7. Virgin Media O2 adds to UK telco job cut woes

In the wake of major job cuts announcements from BT and Vodafone, reports emerged in June that Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) was set to add to the headcount reduction tally of the UK’s major telecom network operators with plans to make at least 800 staff, about 5% of the company’s workforce, redundant over the summer. As it turned out, the number was higher… Read more. 

8. Telus gains a new lease of telecom software life

It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the first half of this year, though! In May, Canadian operator Telus discussed how it dragged itself out of a telecom software rut with a change of IT strategy and the adoption of a uniform approach to reusable, application programmable interface (API)-driven software modules developed by industry body TM Forum. Read more. 

9. Virgin Media O2 picks Mavenir for Open RAN rollout

The Open RAN sector might have leaned on the pause button temporarily (or so it seems), but there’s still some new activity here and there. In April, following years of testing and trials, major UK operator Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) finally committed to a commercial Open RAN rollout, and selected Mavenir as its key partner for the deployment. Read more. 

10. Vodafone CTO: Insourcing is key to the techco transition

If telcos want to successfully transition into techcos, they need to change the way they operate and develop their own teams, especially by insourcing talent and investing in engineering in order to innovate and unlock new revenue opportunities, Vodafone Group CTO Scott Petty told attendees at the DSP Leaders World Forum in May. Read more. 

Those, then, were the most read articles during the first half of the year. Here are a few more headlines that attracted a lot of reader attention:

Ericsson faces a tough 2023

Neil McRae joins Juniper Networks

BT’s Division X has the metaverse in its sights

5G could be the answer to ‘connection anxiety’

BT to cut up to 55,000 jobs in AI-enabled efficiency drive

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV