In the ever-evolving landscape of the telecommunications industry, innovation is the thing that propels companies forward. It’s not just about staying ahead; it’s about shaping the future. At Mainframe Communications, FOLAN UK, we understand the vital role innovation plays in our growth, and we’re excited to introduce the newest member of our team who embodies this spirit – Tim Landon, our new Product Manager.
With 25 years of expertise in international wholesale telecoms, Tim brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion for redefining the industry.
In this blog post, we delve into Tim’s background, his vision for our company’s product portfolio, and the innovative spirit that drives him. Join us in welcoming Tim and discover how his leadership is set to steer our products into new and exciting horizons.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background and what led you to the telecommunications industry?
Tim: I joined the Royal Signals starting in a sixth form college run by them so started in telecoms there. Then after leaving the military and finishing Uni doing a BSc in telecommunications and a MBA I have been working in the international wholesale telecoms space for 25 years since 1998 working in various product management, sales, and management consultancy roles mainly in Europe, Middle East and Africa but also covering the US and APAC until coming to Mainframe Communications, FOLAN UK, earlier this summer as product lead.
Q: What motivated you to join our team as Product Manager?
Tim: Mainframe is ambitiously evolving, becoming more integrated into part of the FOLAN group and myself leading the products to support and enable this expansion. The chance to join a dynamic and growing team with well thought out growth opportunities with an ambitious strategy was not one to turn down!
Q: What does your role as Product Manager entail, and what are your key responsibilities?
Tim: I am responsible for product strategy and roadmap, revenue P&L for the products but making sure the products we sell are what our customers and markets we serve are demanding in a profitable and enduring way.
Q: How do you envision contributing to the growth and success of our product line?
Tim: Ultimately growing out top line revenue to plan and achieving the desired EBIDTA for sustainable profit. But to achieve this personally I aim to bring both my broad industry experience but with a passionate energy to bring new products to new segments to diversify into broader and profitable segments while still focusing on our core capabilities.
Q: What are your observations about the current trends and challenges in the telecommunications industry?
Tim: In the UK FTTH space there was always going to be consolidation expected in a couple of years time but with the cost of servicing debt recently increasing, I expect both the place of network build of homes passed to shift slightly to homes connected to monetise what has been built with the slight slow-down of overall network build with operators budgets subject to concentrating on servicing debt that is funding network growth expectations.
Q: Can you share your thoughts on the future direction of telecommunications technology?
Tim: Cloud computing, AI, ML, smart cities, virtual reality will all drive demand from upstream data centres and servers which will all flow down to the end user wanting more bandwidth in the FTTH space and this will require PON technologies currently around XGS-PON to NG-PON2 and 25G PON driving bandwidth growth that ultimately benefits both ISPs and solution providers like Mainframe to support the end user bandwidth growth.
Q: Are there any exciting new product or innovations in the telecommunications field that you are particularly excited to work on?
Tim: Rolling out a full end to end FTTA solution is key with 5G requiring antenna densification x 3 over 4G with small cells coverage and fully fibre-based solutions required for 5G means our portfolio of fibre-based products are ideally places to offer resilient FTTA solutions in the market. Further building on our FTTH solution with a full MDA suite of products leaves us ideally placed to take advantage of homes connected from just having homes passed recent announcements from some city councils actively looking at MDU solutions in their boroughs means we are well placed to serve this aspect of FTTH.
Q: How do you plan to collaborate with cross-functional teams, such as engineering and marketing, to bring new products to the market successfully?
Tim: All new products and enhancements are truly a team effort with sales to validate the customer needs and expected volumes, engineering for the design and implementation, marketing to give the best chance of success initially and over the life span of the product, with finance to audit any business cases for investment required to meet company KPIs but with a good NPV and payback within framework that all require the full effort within the organisation working across these teams to achieve the company’s goal requires product management to pull it all together.
Q: Is there a message or piece of advice you would like to share with our team or our audience as you embark on this new journey with us?
Tim: Always focus on the customer needs and asks coupled with technology and product developments, deliver products suited to the customer requirements.
Q: How can our audience connect with you or reach out if they have questions or insights to share?
Tim: I’m available on LinkedIn or by email tim.landon@mainframecomms.co.uk
