Xavier Priem currently holds the position of Senior Research Fellow at University of Bristol for the Smart Internet Lab (Smart). Together with Smart’s Director Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, he is in charge of defining mid and long-term vision paths (horizon 2030-2040) and developing research, funding and partnering strategies to enable this vision. His reach in the Telecom and Vertical Industries and Research organizations based on his long belonging to those ones do help him in this mission. His own special topic of interest is the alignment of current and future technologies with the development and launch of innovative, disruptive and sustainable business models, Connectivity as a Utility.

Prior to join University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab, Xavier was the UK 5G North East Program Director. He led North East to the second position of the UK DCMS UCCP competition (out of 18 regional bids), bringing a large number of key Industry players to support his vision of new verticals and telecom value chain combined business models.

Xavier has been a key player in the launch and success of a specialist 4G and 5G research and innovation center in France and projects across Europe. Xavier has always been at the crossroads of research, innovation and commercialization of new technologies all along his more than 25 years long industry career (from Research to Global Portfolio Management). In his last industry position, Xavier did create a new and innovative kind of entity specialized in the alignment of innovation between a well-known telecom infrastructure equipment supplier and some of its major operator customers.

Xavier has an extensive experience working for and with multiple telecom suppliers and their customers (over 80 fix and mobile operators worldwide), as well as Airports, Rail (Wi-Fi on Train and multi-link backhaul including Satellite), Automotive, Smart Cities and Energy vertical sectors.

Xavier’s vision is that technology must have a combined positive and sustainable economic and social impact. This is why he recently joint University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab and its newly funded Institute of Digital Futures to actively contribute to 'Future Networks’. "5G and beyond should become fully pervasive and thus the 4th Critical Utility. Beyond 5G / 6G must address that challenge at technical, business and social level.”

5G Experimentation will enable overall Business by debunking the Hype and spreading the understanding of the real benefits of the Beast. Therefore 5G experimentation should be open to everyone in advance to commercial deployment or in parallel, thus relying on open testbeds from academia, RTOs, PPP SPVs. Those provide Multi-vendor and Operator Neutrality, which is very desirable to prepare for the entire market. They also provide an access to a large range of TRLs (from 3 to 9). They are the best places to experiment serendipity through open cooperation and cross-fertilization. But the question of their Total Cost of Ownership has to be addressed. Their offer is of particular relevance for Start-ups and SMEs as those cannot invest in full pledged testbed usually. 5G Experimentation does also enable cross-border business via international cooperation in experimentation. But what would be the next phase for 5G experimentation enabled by 5G itself?