The Telco Pro

Bryony Snelling
Nov 6 · 7 min read

The Ori Diaries #2: The Telco Pro

I recently joined the team at Ori Industries — the startup on a mission to build the next generation of cloud computing. We’re currently a small team, but we’re growing! Over a series of blogs I’ll be chatting to my new teammates to share what it’s like to work at Ori. The team is a complete mixed bag of experiences and personalities, and I can’t wait to introduce them all to you. 👩🏻‍💻👩🏽‍🍳🧜🏼‍♂

Innovation Engineer, Product Owner, Telecoms Queen — Anastasia Karatrantou has a few titles here at Ori Industries, in this blog we talk through her passion for connectivity and her excitement for what Ori is doing.

Anastasia joined Ori Industries back in September after 2 years at Vodafone Group. Her career started in Greece with an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science MEng degree from the National Technical University of Athens and she’s been swept up in the glamorous world of network communications ever since.

Even tourist activities are telecom focused 📞

Anastasia’s experience covers several domains of network engineering, extending all the way from traditional IP to cloud native computing. So why did she leave a network giant to take a chance on a startup? How did she end up in this field to begin with? What’s her favourite G? (5G, of course) What does she do here at Ori? You can find all of the answers below in my most recent interview:

Why did you choose to study electrical engineering & computer science?

I’ve always been fascinated by the combination of maths, physics and computer science, making electrical engineering an obvious choice. I love solving problems and I’m very analytical.

How did you come to specialise in telecoms?

There were a few fields to specialise in within my course — hardware, software, networks etc. I took courses in all of them but networks was really fun and I seemed to have a natural flare for it, so it soon became my favourite — it’s a fascinating industry. When I was at University it was a really exciting time because we were just moving from 3G to 4G.

People who build networks are amazing because they understand something we’ll never know or see. There’s so much going on in the background, from the intricacies of infrastructure to the new relationships between hardware and software, yet to most people that all materialises as a simple notification on their device. I like that the more I learn, the more I understand exactly what’s happening when I FaceTime my mother (and my dog, Hendrix) in Greece.

Anastasia and Hendrix in Greece

How did you come to work at Vodafone?

My first job after University was working on the Telecommunications/IT team for a large bank in Greece. They had just merged 7 smaller banks into one so their networks were a bit of a mess — it was a big challenge to tackle which I loved, but I knew I couldn’t spend my whole career there. My manager taught me about the wider industry and I knew I had to go where the networks are actually being produced.

I was attracted to Vodafone because of their large global footprint. I enjoy the variety that comes with this level of coverage. For example, if you compare the UK to Africa, the two countries are working on different timelines, using different technologies and implementing different strategies: I find this scale of work fascinating.

My first job at Vodafone felt like it was designed for me. I was part of the Group Network Engineering department, in the team that looked after the Packet Core-one of the most challenging parts of the Network during the era of massive data exchange. The timing was very interesting from a technology point of view with both the virtualisation of the core network and preparations for 5G. Dimensioning the Core network when user traffic was growing unexpectedly, and innovation was changing multiple aspects of the network, while still considering cost, security, 24/7 availability and analytics has to be one of the most appealing job descriptions for me. I learnt a lot there, both from the experts I worked with and the challenges I faced.

What’s your favourite G?

5G, of course! I have a “crazy fast wireless love” t-shirt where the wireless waves are in the shape of a heart.

Joking aside, I believe 5G reflects a major transition in the industry. The intelligence is distributed, proprietary protocols are being replaced with APIs and applications are coming closer to the users, all this while the radio latency is ten times less, who wouldn’t chose 5G?!

What do you find most interesting about mobile network engineering?

It’s the big picture that I love — that I could have an impact on my life and the lives of my friends and family. As a student I was always attracted to technology and I managed to identify the one that is both a commodity and a means of entertainment. It’s a cheesy line, but we are moving towards a fully connected society — one which brings the Telecom industry to the forefront of innovation. From being able to play VR games anywhere to drone deliveries to areas affected by natural disaster, there are so many new possibilities. It’s also important to consider the challenging nature of maintaining satisfying connectivity to individuals and businesses with no downtime while attempting technological breakthroughs.

What do you think is the most important thing about the industry that your Ori teammates should know?

It’s a common misconception that the people that work for CSPs (Communication Service Providers) are overly traditional dinosaurs or that they have an aversion to modern innovations. It’s just not true — the people working in the industry are really passionate about innovation and improvement. But fundamentally they have vital products and services that they need to deliver. You just have to prioritise a functioning product, and it has to work — there’s no other option.

What’s happening now that’s great is that telcos can make sure the lights come on in the morning whilst partnering with startups like Ori Industries who can empower them to innovate. Networks are becoming more software-defined and so the potential of their capabilities are growing significantly.

What attracted you to work at Ori?

Ori and the product we’re building is very modern. From an industry point of view, it’s definitely one of the places to be. Cloud is the major protagonist in the tech scene today and Ori has managed to do something cool and different with it. On top of that, my familiarity and interest in the industry made me recognise that Ori was solving a problem that had seemed unsolvable.

What do you think sets Ori apart?

What Ori is trying to achieve — especially in Europe — is so hard, so complex. No one else is doing it in Europe. In the United States everything is centred around innovation, major investments are allocated and regulation is entirely more ‘friendly’. I like the fact that Ori has a clear vision, has built a robust technology and attempts innovation in an arena with many Goliaths. At the same time, we are willing to learn from our industry partners and adapt to our customers where necessary. What we do, we do very well — we’re confident, but what’s vital is that we’re willing to adapt, even in a day if necessary, when our customers require.

CSPs own something that is not accessible to anyone else, so it’s important to respect their point of view and expertise — you can’t just assume they’ll agree that yours is the right way. This attitude at Ori impressed me because I was on the other side for a long time at Vodafone and it wasn’t very common at all.

What exactly is your role at Ori?

‘It’s complicated’. As in any startup, we are all multitaskers. My responsibilities range from leading our Telecom Strategy to working with the Engineering team to ensure our partners are front and centre in the product development process. It’s vital we have a really tight feedback loop between our partners and our product. They have to be at the centre of our development strategy.

Count the Edgehogs 🕵🏽‍

What excites you the most about what we’re doing?

Mainly that someone was bold enough to try it. When I came across the product I thought, this makes so much sense! But I was just amazed that someone was actually doing it. I’d already seen that there was this gap in the industry, so when they came along I thought the opportunity to build this bold new thing was too good to miss.

We’re on a mission to create the next generation of the cloud and we’re looking for others to join us. Whether you’re a Mobile Network, Private or Public Cloud or a Local Authority, we’d love to hear from you, get in touch by emailing hello@ori.co or sign up on our website.


👋🏼 Fancy joining our remote-first team? We’re always on the look-out for leaders, 👸🏻 challengers,🕵🏽‍♂ and explorers 👩🏻‍🚀. Head to our jobs page to see if there’s a role for you.

Check us out on Twitter and LinkedIn.

From The Edge

We are building the next generation of cloud computing infrastructure to power an autonomous, smart and immersive future.

Thanks to Melissa Doré

Bryony Snelling

Written by

Outreach at Ori

From The Edge

We are building the next generation of cloud computing infrastructure to power an autonomous, smart and immersive future.

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