Neil Geary

Director, Technical Strategy (Fixed Network) at Virgin Media O2

Speaker

Neil Geary is Technical Strategy Consultant (CPE & Network) in Liberty Global’s Chief Architecture Office (CAO) department.

Neil's background is as an electronics & telecoms engineer. With a data-driven approach and a desire to look long-term at technology trends and deployment scenarios, he soon found himself in Network Planning & Strategy roles.

At Virgin Media / Liberty Global since 2012, he has been working on architectural assessments and business cases concerning the evolution of the HFC Access & DOCSIS, FTTH, telephony, backbone IP networks, as well as the in-home set of Customer Premise Equipment (CPE). Working closely with technical domain specialists and product teams, his role incorporates developing technology and operating model strategies, roadmaps, and value creation / investment plans to satisfy both functional business needs (product capability and technology obsolescence) along with business efficiency (Capex and Opex).

His previous position was for Emirates International Telecommunications, a Dubai-based telecoms investment company holding majority and minority shareholdings in several Telcos in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions. He worked on network investment assessment projects across quad-play product sets, tracking and optimising Capex budgets, operational improvement projects, plus consulting for and compiling costed 5-year technology roadmaps. Given the capex intensity, a major focus in this role was on evolving the fixed access network (LLU, FTTC/VDSL2, and FTTH).

Neil holds a doctorate from University College London in the field of telecom network planning, and is a member of IET, IEEE and SCTE-UK.