Mariam Sorond has left Cable Labs and joined VMWare as the chief technology officer of its Service Provider and Edge business unit. She started at VMware on March 28 and will be reporting to SVP and GM Sanjay Uppal.
Sorond has had a diverse career in telecom. On her LinkedIn profile, she describes herself as “somewhat of an anomaly; with a deep knowledge of broadband, mobile wireless, fixed and satellite networks. Very few people have worked in all four industries.”
She was with CableLabs for two years as chief research & development officer, where she led the strategy and R&D of the trade organization’s wireless focus. During that time, she created the Mobile Convergence Committee of operators and Convergence Council of vendors to bring the industry together on the convergence of DOCSIS, 5G/6G, Wi-Fi and PON technologies.
Previously, she worked with Dish Networks Chairman Charlie Ergen as the architect for Dish’s entry into the wireless market.
And before that she was with Lucent Technologies, working on wireless deployments in the U.S., Brazil, and Europe across multiple operators.
Sorond spoke with Fierce in 2020 and said it made sense for her to work at CableLabs because cable operators were getting into network virtualization and had interest in wireless networks.
Several cable operators, including Altice, Comcast and Charter, offer mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services, running on the networks of the big wireless carriers in the U.S.
And CableLabs already has members that are full MNOs, including Vodafone, GCI, Shaw, Rogers and Millicom. The group also participates in O-RAN, TIP and the 3GPP.
CableLabs didn't immedately respond as to whether it plans to fill Sorond's role.