MWC Takeaways

MWC Barcelona is one of the biggest events for the telecom industry, and this year, Anritsu Service Assurance had a strong presence, with over 60 attending across test, measurement, and assurance. Working as a product marketeer for Anritsu, my focus is on the technology, our competitors, and the value and messaging.

I have a few takeaways from my many discussions with partners, customers, and even our competitors.

Anritsu is Leading the Market for Network Service Assurance for 5G SA

With enormous efforts from the whole team in Anritsu, we have heavily focused on 5G SA for the last couple of years. I felt these efforts were putting us ahead, but now I’m convinced that Anritsu is leading the market for network service assurance for 5G SA.

And why is this? Many operators/partners and even private network vendors at the event needed to be made aware of what is required for data acquisition for 5G SA. Getting like-for-like visibility on 5G SA is different. Anritsu has made significant progress in this area, collaborating with partners, the fruits of which are evident from the growing list of wins for Anritsu.

What is the number one reason for the growing number of wins for 5G SA? It is trust. When we tell customers what is needed, how it can work, and what they need to do, they trust us and trust that we know, given that their peers have already worked with us for years on their networks.

Whither Our Competitors?

Another key takeaway was the absence of some of our larger competitors at the event. Are they snubbing Europe, or do they have their focus elsewhere and not on service assurance? It was noticed, too, by other competitors and analysts. I’m sure the large European Telcos noticed. Short-term cost savings or strategic realignment? Either will bring some tough questions.

Anritsu was there and focused on its core skills of network monitoring, troubleshooting, and speedy issue resolution. Customers came to us for this foundational visibility on which all things Network Operations are built.

Cloud and 5G SA+

Anritsu’s AI and how we apply it is just faster. Despite using much of the same language, it is clear that no other vendor can provide this level of real-time AI-enhanced troubleshooting on subscriber-level data.

Speed is the significant differentiator. How do I know this? Well, when explaining to a competitor in friendly competitive banter (no names provided) that we can do this for all subscribers, let’s say, in an 80 million subscriber network, he told me it was impossible. But, of course, that only means it’s impossible for them. Yet they have the same messaging as we do.

How does this relate to the cloud and 5G SA+? To have your telco workloads in the cloud and fix issues, you need real-time visibility and notification of issues on a subscriber level, as we do now. Looking to the near future, human teams won’t be able to support issue resolution on future networks without real-time AI on subscribers. Talk to us to find out more.

So, MWC Barcelona was a fantastic event for Anritsu Service Assurance, and I came away with inspiration and some valuable takeaways. Anritsu’s leadership in the market for network service assurance for 5G SA, the absence of our competitors, and the speed of our AI were all highlights. We will continue to build on these strengths and focus on delivering world-class service assurance to our customers.