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Could someone explain what these workers were actually doing? It sounds like they were setting up cell networks, I guess cell networks contract with Ericsson to

Could someone explain what these workers were actually doing? It sounds like they were setting up cell networks, I guess cell networks contract with Ericsson to essentially run their infrastructure for them? I was under the impression that Ericson mostly made hardware/software and sold it to companies running cell networks, but I guess I was wrong.

thematrixturtle 5y ago
Local Telco purchased a bunch of gear from Ericsson including installation, Ericsson subcontracted it to a local partner on the ground, whose staff got kidnapped. This kind of thing is quite standard in telco. I was briefly involved in one project in Iraq myself, but due to the risks involved stayed in Kuwait and VPN'd into Baghdad, where our local partner had set up and ran the data center.
toast0 5y ago
Cell networks are a mix of run by the company with hardware purchased (or leased, maybe) from Ericson, Huawei, etc; run by a contracting firm (IBM, etc) with hardware from whoever; run by Ericson or Huawei with probably the same company equipment, but they can probably operate the other stuff too. Some networks run part of the business and contract out other parts, etc. I worked with a fair number of international carriers at my last job and couldn't figure out the pattern of when I'd get a contact with an email at the carrier domain or at a big global consultancy (telco or general) or at hotmail/gmail. Even the large international carriers would be different on a country by country level.
kalleboo 5y ago
The network hardware manufacturers are pushing heavily into becoming basically "networks as a service". And many networks are happy to decide that their core competency is not actually running a mobile network but marketing or something.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  Mobile telecom companies have near-zero in-house engineering capability. It's all outsourced and they're even proud of it.

thematrixturtle 5y ago

Local Telco purchased a bunch of gear from Ericsson including installation, Ericsson subcontracted it to a local partner on the ground, whose staff got kidnapped. This kind of thing is quite standard in telco. I was briefly involved in one project in Iraq myself, but due to the risks involved stayed in Kuwait and VPN'd into Baghdad, where our local partner had set up and ran the data center.

toast0 5y ago

Cell networks are a mix of run by the company with hardware purchased (or leased, maybe) from Ericson, Huawei, etc; run by a contracting firm (IBM, etc) with hardware from whoever; run by Ericson or Huawei with probably the same company equipment, but they can probably operate the other stuff too. Some networks run part of the business and contract out other parts, etc. I worked with a fair number of international carriers at my last job and couldn't figure out the pattern of when I'd get a contact with an email at the carrier domain or at a big global consultancy (telco or general) or at hotmail/gmail. Even the large international carriers would be different on a country by country level.

kalleboo 5y ago

The network hardware manufacturers are pushing heavily into becoming basically "networks as a service". And many networks are happy to decide that their core competency is not actually running a mobile network but marketing or something.

Nextgrid 5y ago
Mobile telecom companies have near-zero in-house engineering capability. It's all outsourced and they're even proud of it.