NEW DELHI: Open radio access network †openRAN) gear supplier Parallel wireless said the rollout will continue, as will research and development efforts, a week after it massively layoffs staff and shuts down the Canada unit.
In a Linkedin message, presumably by Steve PapaParallel Wireless’ chief executive officer, the company said customers were moving to OpenRAN too quickly, compounded by the excitement surrounding 5G.
“Over the past few years, we’ve felt pressure from customers to ‘sprint’ to solve the vastly diverse technical needs for the wide variety of global mobile networks — presumably because of the global 5G enthusiasm,” the company said. Linkedin, signed by “Steve and the PW team”.
“But in a Covid-constrained environment, the reality of the longer time to develop and introduce new technology to the network became more and more apparent and we came to the conclusion together with MNOs (mobile network operators) that instead of a sprint we could run a marathon. he added. “A marathon where we first focus on becoming a self-sufficient business for key segments of the industry and broaden from there.”
The company laid off several employees last week, in a move that, according to Papa, was the result of “the realities of global economic conditions, the world with limited supply chains from Covid and the pace at which open RAN is being implemented”.
While figures have not been made public, several reports speculate that Parallel Wireless has laid off about 500-800 employees in the US, UK, India and Israel, reducing the total workforce to about 200-300.
Papa said in the post that the move essentially reset the business scale to where the company was at the start of the Covid pandemic.
He said the company is pursuing “Huawei-class KPIs in 2G/4G networks” and has gotten there in the past 12 months.
“While by definition 5G is more efficient than probably the earlier generation (4G), I think nevertheless, bearing in mind the need for a greater contribution to net-zero emissions, it could also be a good idea to promote research and development by all . the appliance and equipment manufacturers to enable the development of more energy efficient equipment,” Rajaraman said at an industry event.
“But once there, our customers are strengthened, it’s still a marathon. They have complex existing implementations underway and while we can increase the share incrementally, it is moving at a pace that cannot justify the spend rate of a sprint,” the CEO claimed. “Parts of the cycle are conducive to financing a sprint and others are conducive to the marathon. Obviously this has changed in the last 6 months and you can see this amplifying our reset to the marathon,” he said.
“The increasingly long lead times and high costs (which have been made higher in today’s capital markets) to secure volumes reinforced the fact that if the sprint was successful, it was not sustainable/feasible at sprint speeds. Again, this points to the need to return to the marathon,” Papa said of the supply chain restrictions.
former CMO Eugina Jordanwho in the meantime is one of the laid-off workers has proactively worked on Linkedin to help other such people find a job.