EE’s Fotis Karonis has won Mobile Europe’s CTO of the Year award after being hailed as the mastermind of the UK operator’s expansive LTE strategy.
Karonis was recognised by the judging panel as executing one of the most impressive LTE rollouts in Europe. EE now boasts the largest base of LTE customers on the continent despite launching years, in some cases, after its rivals.
Coverage now spans 80 percent of the UK’s population, with targets in place to cover 98 percent by the end of this year. EE is also experimenting with microcells, VoLTE and carrier aggregation as it looks to build upon its LTE offering.
Karonis was the unanimous choice for the award, which is supported by Amdocs. The judging panel comprised Mobile Europe and European Communications Group Editor Marc Smith, Northstream CEO Bengt Nordstrom, Maravedis Rethink Research Director Caroline Gabriel, CCS Insight Senior Analyst Kester Mann and Amdocs Director of RAN services Jason Ramsden.
Mobile Europe Group Editor Marc Smith said: “Fotis was the popular choice for our CTO of the Year award, having impressed our panel with the LTE rollout, a technological zeal and a pioneering spirit.
“His success demonstrates the central role that technology plays in the modern day telco. EE would not be the company it is today without Karonis’s input and the award is testament to his achievements and those of his team.”
Karonis beat Bouygues Telecom’s Yves Legrand, Telekom Austria Group’s Gunther Ottendorfer and Telekom Deutschland’s Bruno Jacobfeuerborn to clinch the award.
Karonis spoke to Mobile Europe Editor Graeme Neill about EE’s LTE strategy in part one of an exclusive interview.
Visit Mobile Europe tomorrow watch part two and find out about Karonis’s plans for the future and how the upcoming acquisition of EE by BT will affect its technology strategy.