Mavenir is ‘looking to optimize,’ said executive
A month and a half after reports emerged about widespread layoffs at Parallel Wireless, Mavenir, another Open RAN vendor, appears to be doing the same. Just like in the case of Parallel, Mavenir’s marketing team has reportedly taken the biggest hit, suggesting that this nascent market is moving away from the selling phase and is now settling into deployment.
Mavenir’s SVP of global marketing and corporate communications Maryvonne Tubb told Mobile World Live that the company, which grew from 3,200 employees in 2020 to 6,000 in May 2022, is “looking at ways to optimize as we go further.” She added that while the employee headcount may end up being the same at the end of this year, that number will consist of people with “different skills.”
Tubb’s comments imply that with Mavenir already doing business with more than 250 service providers and enterprises — including Verizon, Turkcell and Dish Network — the Open RAN sales pitch might be a thing of the past.
In fact, earlier this month, the company’s Senior Vice President of Business Development John Baker told RCR Wireless News, “Open RAN is really gaining momentum in the industry.” As our Editor in Chief Sean Kinney put it during that conversation, the “[Open RAN] train has certainly left the station.”
Another example of the growth of the Open RAN market and its advocates can be seen in the fact that the O-RAN Alliance, a group that defines specifications for open radio access networks, now has more than 230 members, of which 31 are operators.
