Technology Magazine January 2023 | Page 327

NEC CORPORATION

“ Now is an amazing time for the telecoms industry and telecoms operators to create innovative services , because , with the next wave of innovative services , they ' re not going to rely on fixed broadband like our WiFi ; they ' re going to rely on 5G and 6G ,” Lopez asserts .

“ So we ' re all dreaming of augmented reality , the metaverse and autonomous robots , and all these new services and devices are going to need to be mobile . I think there ’ s a big opportunity there , and I think it ' s a fantastic time , because it provides a great opportunity for operators to change how they want to participate in the industry .”

While , yes , the telecoms industry fulfils the world ’ s entertainment needs , Lopez asserts that it ’ s also important to take a step back and recognise how much of a pivotal role these technologies play across the world .

“ I mean , obviously a part of what we do is enable people to go on TikTok to post silly dance videos , but another part is providing services that are crucial for health , the economy and for the security of the countries that we work in . It ' s good , every now and then , to remind ourselves of what it is that we can enable and how we can contribute to the community ,” says Lopez .

PATRICK LOPEZ

TITLE : GLOBAL VP PRODUCT MANAGEMENT , 5G

INDUSTRY : INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES

LOCATION : ONTARIO , CANADA

Patrick Lopez is Global VP of product management for 5G products at NEC , where he supports the product strategy and planning , partnership , and growth of the Open RAN , 5G Core , and 5G monetization services .

He has over 20 years of experience building , launching , and operating telecoms businesses in startups , midsized and tier-one multinationals . Before NEC , Patrick was the Global VP of networks innovation at Telefonica group and CEO at { Core Analysis }, the leading industry analyst practice at the intersection of telco and cloud . He also was the exclusive advisor to Opera software in its acquisition of Skyfire for $ 155 million .

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