Iago Tenorio, a well-known figure in the telecommunications industry with his roles as Vodafone Group’s network architecture director and chairman of the Telecom Infra (TIP) project, increased his CV by becoming Vodafone’s first associate in recognition of his technical work with the operator. and also appointed chairman of Lime Microsystems, a UK-based software-defined radio specialist with whom Vodafone works as part of its Open RAN developments.
Tenorio became chairman of Lime Micro August this year and he told TelecomTV in an interview with CEOs as part of our Open RAN summit that he was “very pleased and honored to take on this role.” (See Vodafone’s Yago Tenorio on the progress and potential of Open RAN.)
And this role is also encouraged internally: Vodafone Group CTO Johan Weiberg told TelecomTV during a recent media briefing in London that the operator likes his “technical managers to gain business experience”.
So how does Vodafone and Lime Micro work together and how does his role as chairman affect that?
Tenorio notes that Vodafone and Lime Micro are part of a consortium, with engineering and technology services specialist AWTG and the University of Surrey, who have applied for £ 30 million Future RAN competitionis managed by [UK government] Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports. [DCMS], “So we look forward to seeing the result.”
He also noted that Lime Micro “is also a supplier of silicon and as such talks are underway between Vodafone and Lyme to understand the potential inclusion of products in the roadmap of future products and RAN that we can use in our portfolio. . ”
Importantly, Tenorio added: “Since I was appointed chairman of Lime, I got out of the discussions. So, I was not part of the decision-making process that chose the companies that would build the consortium for admission to DCMS. And I’m not part of the conversation [regarding] the roadmap or future products at Vodafone, which may include Lime. ”
However, the prospects for Lime Micro seem strong at Vodafone, mainly because the two companies have been working together for some time on the use of software-defined radio technology in Open RAN architectures, with the resulting CrowdCell technology (developed as a TIP project) being used by the operator in its early Open RAN tests.
And apparently Vodafone’s management would not allow one of its key executives to become chairman of a company that thought it could not deliver the technology it needed.
As you would expect, the Lime Micro team is quite pleased with the situation.
“Given the attention that Open RAN receives and knows what [Tenorio’s] visions are, from my point of view, this is a significant advantage for our organization, “Lime Micro CEO Ebrahim Bushehri told TelecomTV. “Iago’s leadership in our area is very helpful to steer this ship in the right direction … I think we have the best person in the area to help us in this kind of endeavor.”
– Ray Le Mester, Editor-in-Chief, TelecomTV
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