Ante la 'histeria' generalizada en twitter Atleti, alguna real, otra fingida para ganar atención (no lo critíco, pero tampoco lo comparto), no se nos olvide que: - El Atleti apostó por Julián y viceversa. - Luego de 2 años hay muchos momentos que resaltar, pero no hay títulos... este debe ser el punto central. - El jugador (o su entorno, que es lo mismo) abre la puerta de salida... por la razón que sea, que si mantenemos el punto central, no debe importar demasiado. - El Atleti debe reponer los grandes aportes de un Griezmann ejemplar... alcanzarlo será un desafío, superarlo quizás imposible. - Si con Griezmann dando todo lo que dio no fue suficiente para un título, a qué 'nos' estamos aferrando? - Si Julián abre la puerta de salida, no está al 100% adentro, y quizás no le está desde hace un tiempo... para qué aferrarse a una idea (o a una persona) que no es 100% real? - Si alguien viene a ofrecer lo que se pagó por esa apuesta (y si es más, bienvenido), pues como hombre de negocios, como ser humano y como fan del Atleti, elijo verle lo positivo y pensar en el drama tóxico del que nos libra, y en las posibilidades que se abren.

In the era of A.I., what is intellectual property anyway? According to @WIPO property is: 'a *creation of the mind* used in commerce'. It continues by saying it's: 'intangible property that allow creators to earn *recognition from their original* work or ideas'. Is it still a *creation of the mind* when it comes from an *artificial intelligence*? Is it still *original* when the work or idea is the result of a prompt? Who deserves the *recognition*, is it the prompter, or the company paying the prompter, or the engine being prompted, or the company behind the engine being prompted. In valuations that set a high bar on intellectual property: what are investors paying for these days? These thoughts put open source in a very different light... in software, the differentiator is no longer the intellectual property (at least not the degree that patents would suggest), it's the execution, the delivery and the technical support behind the software, and of course the value it delivers. And in particular in telco, where if you don't follow industry standars your products won't integrate well and certainly won't scale... ... does it still make sense to continue paying the big names in telco for their *intellectual property* when an open source alternative can do the same?

Success = vision mindset discipline patience determination ... We usually see the ecuation in reverse, inspirational messages and images like this one (which is great btw), often tell us how to achieve success, but stopping to think about what success actually means and not 'just' how to achieve it, is more important in order to ensure 'success' is not destination, but a way of life. We need a personal perspective (i.e. a vision) and the right mindset in order to identify what type of 'success' is our own, and not a copy of someone else's version of success, which can be just an illusion. We need discipline, as we all know evertyhing worthwhile takes time (yes, even in the A.I. world we live in). We need patience and determination to bear and overcome (as many times times as needed) the many challenges, disappointments and frustrations that will undoubtedly happen along the way, and even once you're already there.

Between March and May the world sees major celebrations/commemorations of it's most popular and influential religions: Holi and Eid in March, Easter and Passover in April, Buddha Day in May... and I'm sure I'm missing some that are not as well known, but equally influential to those that are impacted by them. Nobody chooses where they're born, nor which family/upbringing they're raised into. So what we believe in (or not believe in) doesn't make us inherently good or bad, for most it's simply a function of circumstances that we couldn't control. It's the 'why' behind the thoughts, words and actions that makes the person. If we act out of goodwill for others, that puts us on track to be a positive influence in this world. Conversely, if we act out of illwill, we're part of the problem, not the solution. If we act out of fear, then we're simply: human. However, if we're of a certain age (i.e. old enough to be responsible for our actions, but not so old that we can be excused because the world we were born into is not really the world we live in anymore), then we really have no excuse for acting out of ignorance, and we must endeavor to better understand the people, cultures and world around us.

I'm often one to yin when everyone else seems to yang - I like navigating in the blue ocean, not competing for air in the red oceans all around us. Last year MWC was all about A.I. this, A.I. that. This year there was a lot of that too of course, but also some frustration about the gap between ARTIFICIAL 'Intelligence' expectation/hype and the real impact it is delivering in most cases. While some innovation can and should come from the good use of A.I., there's undoubtedly 2 obvious motivators for far too many companies: - Reducing personnel-related costs - Simplifying management, by having less people to manage Which leads me to a very simple and powerful realization, the real flex, is having a REAL team that you neither have trouble managing because they're professionals that only need guidance, not management... hence you don't see them as a cost that needs optimizing, but rather a TRUE team to build great things around and with. I'm blessed to be in this wonderful position.

Here's a story about generational and professional clashes that maybe helps some of the younger professionals and also a few of us closer to 50 than to 21. 22 years ago I returned home to a developing country after spending 6 relatively cushy years in the U.S., earning decent salaries without family responsibilities. Then I took what to many may have seemed like a step back, getting into the telco industry while earning considerably less than $1K, but since it was for a great multinational company (and still with no familiy responsibilities), I didn't really mind. It took me a couple years to crack the $1K threshold, then another couple years to crack the $2K threshold, and then my carreer thankfully skyrocketed, taking me around the world and leading me to a life filled with blessings I could only vaguely imagine when I first joined the industry. Then, after 12 years in telco, armed with ample experience in multiple roles (technical and commercial), having lived in 6 different countries and 4 continents, and already especially blessed with family responsibilities, I decided to start a company of my own... and I thankfully haven't looked back. Why am I sharing this?, because when I first started in telco, the industry was aspirational, there was no Zuckerberg's WhatsApp or Musk's SpaceX to compare yourself and/or your industry to, no easy way to deal with stock/crypto trying to make a quick buck, and certainly no A.I. to 'help' you do your work. In today's very different context vs the pre-smartphone/quick-buck/A.I. era, there's actually more similarities than differences. The only worthwhile comparison is you vs you - work on preparing yourself today so that tomorrow you're better than yesterday, and you can be ready to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves when good people around you open some doors. This is a genuine story about hard but fulfilling work, not about billions of even millions, and certainly not about artificial dependencies or fake comparisons... it's about what can be achieved with consistent progress that can be attained if you find enjoyment and fulfillment in what you do... and if no one has to tell you what to do more than once.

The same mobile operator responsible for serving over 60 million users and aprox. $4 billion ARR that decided to significantly cut network investment in 2025 (by about 30% YoY), is now announcing a major direct-to-device partnership. This makes all the sense in the world for a mobile operator in a land of over 7,000 islands... and it also undoubtedly signals that radio access network (RAN) vendors have a level of competition they've never seen before. As a very related side note - an open message to national telecommunications regulators: You were years behind (and still are) in ensuring telcos have enough flexibility to compete with global over-the-top (OTT) apps, instead attempting (mostly unsuccessfully) to impose regulation on OTTs. The telco industry cannot afford for regulators to be slow again in leveling the playing field for RAN and satellite (N2N) providers to sustainably coexist. mobileworldlive.com/starlink…

Telecom doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a margin problem. Ericsson's ARR is over €20 billion, so it doesn't really 'need' to reduce it's HQ for a 3rd year in a row. What Ericsson, traditional vendors and the whole telecom industry needs, is to stop focusing on solutions that can't find a problem to solve (e.g. an early 6G focus when 5G use cases only marginally improved vs 4G). The industry needs to remove the fat (and hype) that is diluting industry's margins year after year without delivering any sustainable, tangible value in return. If an 'innovation' like the overhyped A.I. automation doesn't sustainably deliver tangible benefits for the end-users' day-to-day life, then vendors are stuck selling something that operators can't really monetize. The whole innovation chain is upside down. Telecom operators need to be identifying innovations based on customer insights, and then demanding vendors to focus on these. Instead operator's roadmaps are tied to vendor's roadmaps, and established vendors' roadmaps are putting a premium on hype instead of value. Only if telecom operators go back to being the spearhead of innovation, will the industry stop bleeding talent and remain long term sustainable, which is something every user, every vendor, every operator and every country needs. mobileworldlive.com/ranvendo…

To paraphrase the popular saying, one company's 'trash' in another company's treasure. What makes @Millicom and @Telefonica so different? Both offer essentially the same services, but one has been a steady presence and is growing in LatAm, while another is fading fast, despite having reached #1 or #2 market share in most countries it had presence in. More than a decade ago I had the blessing to work at Tigo/Millicom for many years, in several countries and functional areas (both at operations and headquarters level), and I remember the active and mostly positive way HQ was involved with the markets in all functional areas. I don't know Telefónica from within, so I cannot comment on the company culture, but one can only wonder why a then Swedish (now French) company continues to be successful in LatAm, while another company that actually has the benefit of speaking the same language, has decided it can't or shouldn't (or both) continue to operate in the region? Humanity and companies thrive when there is mutual support and true collaboration, not when one side is dictating and the other 'just' doing... or worse, when there's more focus on the reporting/hype than the actual doing. mobileworldlive.com/latin-am…

Procurement is not one of the 4 Ps of innovation. Change the Paradigm, modernize the Process, position your Product/service differently and/or directly improve your Product/service... Telecom operators and MVNOs cannot continue Procuring their 'innovation' from the same old vendors offering 'solutions' that lock them to predetermined use cases. Telecom operators and MVNOs need open source solutions that they can innovate over in order to offer Personalized use cases to their customers... otherwise their Product is not really 'their product' 🤷‍♂️

Reducing CAPEX doesn't have to signify slowing down innovation or expansion - in telecom these days, you can have your cake and eat it too. CAPEX investment for telecom operators has for too long meant implementing unnecessarily expensive solutions from a few vendors that we all know, but that are simply following standards the @3GPP and other reputable institutions have laid out for the whole industry to follow. This is why open source makes all the sense in the world in telecom - the industry can (and should) continue to follow the same well documented standards, without needing to pay for artificially expensive and limiting platforms. mobileworldlive.com/operator…

In the spirit of new year's resolutions, how about: - No Calendly - decide for yourself when you want to meet and with whom. - No auto-reply with A.I. - think for yourself what message you want to convey ... if you're auto-replying, maybe the message is: this is not important - act accordingly by closing loops. - No generic messages to generate leads - research what message may be relevant, to whom and when ... sure, you'll contact fewer potential customers, but your messages, and more importantly: your name, will remain relevant. - Yes to video calls - the world needs more human touch ... ... 2026 will need all of us to be more human than ever... there's nothing intelligent about being artificial with who we are, with the messages we wish to convey, and especially with our time.

If you're the type that makes new year's resolutions, it's good to remind ourselves that we are what we tolerate... - if we tolerate half-hearted efforts, then we will be stuck with mediocre results. Practice makes habits, good habits lead to progress, and real progress is indeed success. Even if you fall short of high expectations, knowing that you set an ambitious goal and diligently gave your best towards achieving it, can be orders of magnitude more gratifying than managing expectations to avoid disappointment. Nothing truly worth working towards was ever achieved by 'managing expectations'. NOTE: giving our best doesn't always equal 100% effort. We're all human, so naturally if sometimes (not too often hopefully) 80% or even 50% is all we have to give, then we should treat that as our 'best' at that particular time.

Más claro, imposible… si toleramos la corrupción, somos cómplices… quien duerme tranquilo siendo cómplice de @JuanOrlandoH por sacar a Mel, está viendo la misma película de hace 4 años y eligiendo volver a los que hicieron tanto daño en momentos clave como la pandemia y huracanes. Solo había y solo hay una salida, sacar a los corruptos, no importa si son de derecha o izquierda… si la democracia no sirve para esto, entonces no es democracia, es una simulación, un circo en el que los payasos son el pueblo.

Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres… nos convertimos en lo que toleramos… si @titoasfura es tan noble, cómo es que está rodeado de la mafia?

Why do we open source a 100,000 TPS SMSC (and all our products)? ... ... because the telecom industry and it's many actors: mobile operators, MVNOs, internet service providers, VAS aggregators and system integrators, need to go back to innovating from within in order to deliver profitable value. Relying on the same vendor roadmaps as your competitors, guarantees 2 things: - Your services are not differentiated, hence you end-up competing on price, decreasing your own profitability. - You're not not able to deliver in a timely manner on your customer insights and needs, because you're always one full procurement & deployment cycle (or more) behind. A.I. can shorten deployment cycles, but unless you have an all A.I. procurement team (scary thought TBH), you're wasting time and money by outsourcing innovation to vendors.

Hey @ConnectCOAI have you ever heard of a GMLC and/or an E-SMLC? 🤷‍♂️ Not only is this 'mulling' unnecessarily scary, it's almost as if you don't know how geolocation over a telecom network works 🤔 ... mobileworldlive.com/apple/in…

We know 'the end justifies the means' has been twisted in all sorts of Machiavellian ways. But when the means become the end, we also have a very damaging twist. We seem to be celebrating automation and reducing labor costs to the point that this has become our objective... and it may become our end. The objective cannot be lifeless automation and reducing labor costs, it needs to be augmentation & efficiency of a workforce willing to evolve and deliver quicker, better than ever before. If we make A.I. the end-game, then we have Machiavellian troubles twisted with King Midas' be careful what you wish for ... if everything we touch turns to A.I. gold, reducing payroll to absolute minimum, then after a while, no one will be in position to buy that gold. Let's stops the nonsense, A.I. is the means, not the end.

For those of us that have been around the telecom industry long enough to remember when IoT was simply called M2M (machine-to-machine), this whole new wave of hype around 'Connected Intelligence' is starting to look like yet another rebranding of similar use cases. I was lucky enough to lead the 1st 'smart meter' project for a well known MNO in LatAm 20 years ago - back then with SIMcards & small internet bundles. These days eSIMs & better looking, more efficient devices makes IoT cooler than M2M, but the underlying concept of connecting 'smart' devices remains. Now we are seeing reputable companies & telecom associations talking about 'connecting intelligence' as if it's a revolution... it's not, it's 'just' an evolution. A useful one for sure, but not one that will 'unlock' (the telling verb when it's more hype than substance) billions of dollars. Telco needs significant cost efficiencies more than it needs fake 'unlocking' of revenue that hasn't been 'locked' for decades... and no company or industry should ever be strategizing its talent out the door, but instead powering its talent to innovate from within.