After helping optimise mobile networks in Britain, telecommunications engineer and researcher Mr Olanrewaju Ajayi brought his experience to the United States, where his assignments expanded from conventional 4G and 5G network performance to the operation of an ambitious Open Radio Access Network. His career now informs a research question with direct relevance to American industry: how should manufacturers assess advanced wireless systems when reliability, cost and interoperability matter as much as headline speeds?
The progression from British network modernisation to American Open RAN operations offers a practical perspective on the promise and limits of newer telecommunications architectures. It also separates two issues often confused in public debate: whether technology works in an engineering setting and whether a national operator can sustain the economics of building a network.
The British Foundation
Before moving to the United States, Mr Ajayi worked on telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom, including projects involving Three UK and O2. His work on Three UK included an early 5G trial and the modernisation of network equipment. These assignments required attention to radio coverage, site configuration, handovers and the customer experience during upgrades.
His earlier international experience included Huawei Technologies Nigeria and network modernisation work involving MTN South Africa. Across these projects, performance engineering meant measuring how real networks behaved, investigating faults and adjusting settings so customers could continue making calls and using data services while operators introduced new equipment.
Britain also provided a setting in which network operators tested different approaches to 5G deployment. The experience exposed Mr Ajayi to the practical difficulty of making new equipment work within existing infrastructure, a challenge that later became especially relevant to multi-vendor Open RAN systems.
Moving into American Telecommunications
In the United States, Mr Ajayi supported work involving Nokia and T-Mobile, as well as Samsung and Verizon. These assignments extended his experience in radio performance, troubleshooting and network configuration. They also placed him within a telecommunications market where operators serve extensive geographic areas and must balance coverage, service quality and the cost of network expansion.
From February 2024, he joined a contractor team supporting the Dish Network radio infrastructure developed for Boost Mobile. His responsibilities included investigating faults affecting radio equipment, processing units and links to the network core. He coordinated with field engineers and suppliers when technical problems required resolution.
Unlike traditional integrated radio systems, Open RAN promotes standardised interfaces between components. The approach is intended to give operators more flexibility in selecting compatible equipment and software from different vendors. That flexibility creates additional demands for integration, monitoring and fault isolation.
“On the network I supported, equipment from different suppliers ran together every day,” Mr Ajayi said.
The American Open RAN Test
Dish invested in a nationwide network built around Open RAN principles. The project tested whether a new entrant could deploy extensive wireless infrastructure using a more open supplier model. Its later commercial difficulties brought attention to the cost of building coverage and competing against established operators with existing networks and customers.
“Open RAN did not fail because the technology did not work,” Mr Ajayi said.
His distinction matters. Technical interoperability does not by itself resolve spectrum costs, financing, customer acquisition or the expense of maintaining nationwide infrastructure. The experience therefore offers evidence about the complexity of a particular deployment without proving that every Open RAN application will succeed or fail.
A factory, university or industrial campus presents a different operating environment. Its geographic boundaries are clearer, its users are known and its connectivity requirements can be defined around particular operations. These differences make private networks an important area for evaluating wireless architecture on measurable performance rather than broad market expectations.
Research on Industrial 5G
Mr Ajayi’s doctoral research at the University of the Cumberlands examined ultra-low-latency communication and network slicing in smart manufacturing. Low latency concerns the time required for information to move between devices and systems. Network slicing allows distinct logical services with different performance requirements to operate over shared infrastructure.
In a manufacturing plant, these capabilities are relevant to machine monitoring, connected sensors and applications requiring dependable communication. Their value must be established under real operating conditions, including interference, changing traffic loads and the cost of integration with existing factory equipment.
“A national network has to serve millions of people it will never meet,” Mr Ajayi said.
“A factory network serves one building, one owner and one set of machines,” he added.
Those differences do not automatically make Open RAN the preferred choice. Wired networks remain suitable for many fixed machines, while industrial Wi-Fi serves a broad range of applications. A private 5G deployment must show advantages that justify equipment, security, maintenance and integration expenses.
What American Manufacturers Need to Test
For American manufacturers considering industrial 5G, the useful question is not whether Open RAN will transform every telecommunications market. It is whether a particular system improves a specific production operation at an acceptable cost. Testing should examine coverage, reliability, response times, interoperability and the effort required to restore service when components fail.
The United States has a substantial manufacturing base with varied connectivity needs, from large industrial plants to specialised production facilities. Each application requires its own engineering assessment. Mr Ajayi’s combined experience in British network upgrades and American Open RAN operations offers a basis for comparing those requirements with the behaviour of deployed systems.
“The factories that connect their machines reliably in the next five years will set the pace for everyone else,” Mr Ajayi said.
The Next Chapter in the United States
His American assignments illustrate the importance of engineers who understand both established mobile networks and newer multi-vendor architectures. Supporting a commercial network requires fault diagnosis and operational discipline. Evaluating an industrial deployment adds questions about production requirements, equipment compatibility and the economics of keeping a facility connected.
For the United States, the significance of Mr Ajayi’s work lies in this practical connection between telecommunications engineering and manufacturing research. The next test of industrial 5G will be decided by American facilities able to document reliable operation, manageable costs and measurable production benefits. His experience offers a technically grounded perspective on how those results should be assessed.
