Five Gee
In this week's episode, Ken Forster speaks with Michael Cihra, former SVP of Alliances and Partners at Eseye, an IoT connectivity solution that provides a single, customizable, and scalable network for global IoT deployments.
Michael Cihra is a connected technology business leader. With 20 years of experience growing new businesses in mobility and the Internet of Things on three different continents, Michael has led operations, strategy and product teams with US-based enterprise software start-ups and ran the IoT businesses for TELUS in Canada and Telstra in Australia. Michael's understanding of and enthusiasm for wireless data applications in the enterprise space is unrivaled.
Discussion Points:
- What would you consider to be your 'Digital Thread'?
- You've spent over 20 years across Verizon, Telstra, and TELUS. What would you say were the top three insights you gleaned from this time relative to IoT?
- You were leading Emerging Business for Telstra, working closely with their Ventures team. What was your remit in this role, and what were some of your wins?
- You went on to lead TELUS' IoT efforts overseeing several acquisitions. Tell us a bit about the strategy here and what you're most proud of.
- I know you recently spent the last year at one of TELUS' portfolio companies: Eseye. What's the focus of the company, and how have you been supporting their growth?
- You've been an advocate for 5G communications applications to IoT. How do you think the 5G opportunity is progressing, what is holding back more adoption, and when do you see these arriving?
- I know that unlicensed spectrum players like LoRaWAN and SIGFOX were early entrants in the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) space. Do you believe these will continue to be viable alternatives to licensed spectrum standards like 5G?
- Private 5G has received a lot of attention. Could you explain this and why it's so important to the digital industry?
- So, what's next for you?
- In closing, where do you find your inspiration?
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