Rivada Networks, designer, integrator and operator of wireless, interoperable communications networks, has appointed four of Sprint’s former executives to its senior leadership team. They are Pierre Elisseeff, Peter Campbell, Bill Esrey, and Todd Rowley. These executives bring a track record of wholesale-market and operational success to Rivada Mercury.
One of Rivada Networks’ products is their Open Access Wireless Marketplace, which allows bandwidth to be bought, sold, and traded at the wholesale level, lowering barriers to entry into wireless and ensuring that no mobile network capacity is wasted. The company’s efficient, transparent approach is made possible by the company’s patented Dynamic Spectrum (News - Alert) Arbitrage (DSA) technology. This technology allows buyers to acquire wireless bandwidth for a specific period of time in a specific location.
“Rivada’s Open Access Wireless Market will open the door to a myriad of new uses for mobile data and new business models to exploit those opportunities,” Declan Ganley, CEO, Rivada Networks.
A little background about the new hires. Elisseeff is Rivada Mercury’s chief financial officer. He was previously vice president and wholesale business unit CFO at Sprint (News - Alert), where he successively oversaw the Enterprise/Wholesale and Postpaid Consumer businesses. Campbell joins Rivada Mercury as chief information officer with his more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications sector. Esrey joins the organization as senior vice president of wholesale and business development with more than 20 years of senior management experience in sales, operations, product management, marketing, strategy, and customer management. Rowley joins Rivada Mercury as senior vice president of business development. He most recently spent the past 16 years serving as vice president of business development at Sprint.
According Ganley, “As the market for mobile bandwidth takes hold, we expect regulators to re-examine the current system of auctioning spectrum licenses for decades at a time to a small number of bidders. Spectrum auctions had their place when mobile was new and networks were yet to be built. But in today’s environment, where many markets are fully saturated, spectrum auctions merely offer an opportunity for the incumbents to tighten their grip. By adopting an open-access approach, and tying payments for spectrum to the value of bandwidth over time, governments can both reduce barriers to entry into the mobile space and participate in the rising value of spectrum over time.”