Dean Bubley

Founder, Disruptive Analysis Ltd. Network Technology & Futures Analyst / Consultant

Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) is the founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm based in London. An outspoken analyst & futurist with over 25 years’ experience, he specialises in wireless / telecoms fields, with an eye on the broader technological, governmental and societal contexts. He is one of the leading market observers and forecasters covering 5G/6G, Wi-Fi, FTTX, edge/cloud compute, enterprise private networks, IoT, and policy issues including spectrum, competition and broadband wholesale. He is known as a contrarian and visionary, often with challenging opinions that go against industry consensus. Speaking at over 30 conferences and other events per year, and quoted by publications such as The Economist, FT & Wall Street Journal, he is an authority and provocateur. He regularly appears in technology industry videos, podcasts and blogs. Mr Bubley was formerly an equity analyst, covering communications stocks, with the UK arm of investment bank Robert W. Baird. Prior to that, he spent eight years at UK research firm Datamonitor, where he co-founded the company's Technology business, managed the Internet & Networking area and custom consulting operations, with roles of Chief Analyst & Director of Consulting. He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.

Professor Ian Corden

CEO, Peira Consulting Ltd

Ian brings over 30 years of experience in the telecoms, technology, and digital sectors, gained via numerous roles and engagements in global industry and consulting. His experience covers the full industry life cycle from start-ups and investor funding, through strategic planning and M&A advisory, to procurement, hands-on engineering, systems architecture, expert witness, tech & commercial due diligence, and programme delivery and recovery, together with extensive expertise in policy development, telecoms regulation, telecoms finance, and radio spectrum management.

Formerly with PwC TMT Strategy London, PA Consulting, Nokia, Oracle, and Bell Labs, Ian’s experience spans both technology and commercial domains and includes digital strategies, radio spectrum planning and valuation, investment / transaction advisory, C-suite advisory, performance and process improvement, bid development, network and IT systems transformation, and large-scale technology programme management. His client base includes national and local governments, industry bodies, regulators, telcos, ISPs, enterprises, vendors, investors, banks, and law firms. With Bell Labs USA, he was awarded the President’s Prize.

Julie Bradford

Head of Techno-Economic Analysis, Real Wireless

Julie has worked in the wireless industry for over 15 years. At Real Wireless, she is a thought leader in 5G business case analysis including understanding 5G use cases, quantifying (in financial terms) the operational and socio-economic benefits of 5G services and understanding network dimensioning and cost implications under 5G virtualised networks.

She has most recently been working with city councils around their wireless strategy and related Green Book outline business case development. She also led Real Wireless’ techno-economic analysis on the EC Horizon 2020 5G-MoNArch project. Inspired by the project’s smart sea port testbed constructed by HPA, Nokia and DT in the Port of Hamburg, this analysis included quantifying the operational benefits of 5G to port authorities and other port users and the cost implications of delivering these industrial grade wireless services from existing mobile infrastructure via network slicing supported via the virtualised 5G-MoNArch network architecture.

Previously, Julie was Communications Engineer at QinetiQ UK, consultant at PA Consulting UK, and Senior Systems Engineer for Airvana UK. In addition to working at Real Wireless, Julie is a CW board member and champion for the CW Virtual Networks Special Interest Group (SIG).

Andy Jones

Founder, Jonesthefone Consulting Limited

A former Vodafone technology executive, Andy Jones is a globally recognised industry expert with 35 years of leadership experience. During his career he has made notable personal contributions to the development and adoption of 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, IP/MPLS, NFV, Telco Cloud and Open RAN. Andy is currently advising startups and research teams on 5G>6G evolution of robust wireless networking for Industry 5.0 with a particular focus on smart manufacturing and logistics. Andy founded Jonesthefone Consulting in 2009 and has worked with 60+ consulting clients over the last 16 years, while also serving as an advisor to DCMS/DSIT and to the Telecom Infra Project.

Professor William Webb

CEO, Commcisive

William is CEO of Commcisive, an independent consultancy providing advice across all telecommunications matters. He was one of the founding directors of Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks, which was formed at the start of 2011 and became CEO of the Weightless SIG, a body standardizing IoT technology. Prior to this William was a Director at Ofcom where he managed a team providing technical advice and performing research. He has worked for a range of communications consultancies and spent three years providing strategic management across Motorola’s entire communications portfolio, based in Chicago. He was IET President 2014-2015.

William has published 20 books, 100 papers, and 18 patents. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEEE and the IET, a Visiting Professor at Southampton University and a Board Member of the Marconi Society. He has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates by the UK’s leading universities and in 2018 was awarded the IET’s prestigious Mountbatten Medal for technology entrepreneurship.