ISE Magazine, August 2019

AUGUST 2019 WWW ISEMAG COM 37 ISE EXPO 2019 Topic UPGRADE REALITIES AND ROI Upgrading a network is no small feat nor is it inexpensive Thus all network upgrades must be thoroughly vetted to ensure that they provide both the necessary performance enhancements while also making themselves financially viable Its a tricky balancing act What network upgrades should small to medium service providers make across their networks so they can serve their customers as well as Verizon does Fridström With more advanced data analytics comes a much better awareness of where the traffic is coming from and where there is an increase in traffic in our network This insight tells us where we need to make upgrades in the network If we add one of the fairly advanced simulation tools that exist today we get a pretty good idea where to spend the money for the next upgrade allowing us to invest where we will see the biggest impact Topic THE FUTURE What emerging or disruptive technology excites you the most for the future of the ICT industry Fridström I admit that the cloud still excites me the most I know its been around for a while but it continues to change the landscape and in some ways is democratized the playing field within many business markets With quite a little effort you can become a significant player in almost any industry by using the cloud in a smart way At the moment it has also led to a winner takes it all situation with some cloud players becoming extremely large and wealthy That said Im intrigued how that pans out over the next few years Topic CHANGE How do you embrace change and encourage risk taking across your team Fridström The overall evolution of the entire ICT ecosystem has allowed newer companies to lead the market over the incumbents and system integrators Several years ago we thought that the incumbents would lead the change but I would argue that some of them are nearly irrelevant The debut of softwarization has brought a completely new ecosystem where a great ICT solution is usually a combination of services from many companies each one executing their piece of the puzzle well To believe that one company can do it all for the next 20 years is not realistic but there are companies within the new ecosystem that will stay very relevant over the next 20 years Topic KEEPING UP By 2020 77 of jobs will require technology skills Describe the ideal skills current telecom employees should learn to keep up How can they go about doing that while working full time Topic WHAT MATTERS What are the 3 things that are most important to you and 3 words that describe you best Fridström The 3 things that are most important to me that my family stays healthy that my Telia Carrier team keeps pushing and stretching so that we stay relevant and that we dont get complacent with the great journey we have already completed and finally that National Hockey League NHL players are allowed back to the Olympics The 3 words that describe me effective competitive and curious