Revisionist History: "Invisible Infrastructure with T-Mobile for Business"

January 29, 2026 – Hosted by Malcolm Gladwell

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Malcolm Gladwell sits down with Mo Kadaba (Chief Marketing Officer, T-Mobile for Business), Guy Griggs (Senior VP, Ad Sales & Client Partnerships, CNN), and Steve Douglas (Senior VP, Service Operations, Siemens Energy) to delve into the hidden world of technological infrastructure—specifically, how 5G "network slicing" is revolutionizing industries by ensuring reliable, secure, and adaptive connectivity. The conversation explores how this "invisible" technology is changing the way frontline journalists and power plant crews work, and asks what the future holds as these platforms evolve.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Hidden Benefits of Technological Advancement

(03:24–04:29)

• Gladwell opens by highlighting that most transformative technologies operate behind the scenes, largely invisible to outsiders.
• He aims to surface these unseen innovations by inviting experts to share firsthand stories about "invisible infrastructure" changing their fields.

2. Understanding 5G Slicing & Super Mobile

What is Network Slicing?

• Mo Kadaba:
  • Explains "slicing" as allocating a dedicated portion of the 5G network customized for the "performance characteristics" required by specific business operations (04:29).

  “...if you have a network, can you take a slice of that network and create specific performance characteristics via that slice to ensure that businesses are able to drive the outcomes that are important to them.” — Mo Kadaba (04:29)

• Real-Life Use Case:
  • At the Las Vegas F1 event, slicing supported seamless ticketless entry and behind-the-scenes operations despite massive crowds (05:00).

Evolution of the Technology

• T-Mobile deployed its first large-scale 5G slice at F1 Las Vegas three years ago, and has since used slicing at events like the Ryder Cup and MLB All-Star Week (07:23).
• In 2025, two major slices launched: “T Priority” for first responders, and “Super Mobile” for business clients like CNN and Siemens Energy (07:58).

3. Slicing in the Field: Frontline Journalism at CNN

(08:54–16:48)

Challenges in News Delivery

• Guy Griggs:
  • Describes CNN’s shift from traditional TV and satellite trucks to digital-first, multiplatform reporting demanding always-on, adaptive connectivity (09:32).

  "Now... there are a million ways of reaching our audience. The landscape has just gotten so much more splintered and fragmented." — Guy Griggs (09:32)

How the Partnership Began

• CNN’s need: Reporters must reliably broadcast from anywhere—even disaster zones or dense events (11:04).
• T-Mobile approached CNN with slicing as a potential solution for live, bandwidth-hungry events.

Proof of Concept

• T-Mobile provided test devices to CNN teams for head-to-head field evaluations (12:55–14:12).

  “We had engineers and field journalists using the technology and just, you know, seeing whether the signal was stronger than some of the other partners that we work with…” — Guy Griggs (14:12)

• Result: Slicing outperformed competitors, leading CNN to equip all field journalists with the new tech (14:28).

Impact on Newsroom Practice

• Transforms the reporter’s phone into a “satellite truck in their hands,” vastly speeding up news gathering and dissemination (16:37).
• Example: At F1, instead of runners ferrying SD cards, photos instantly upload over slicing-enabled FTP, letting editors publish breaking images in real time (16:48).

4. Infrastructure in Energy: Siemens Energy’s Transformation

(17:39–24:51)

Field Operations Complexity

• Steve Douglas:
  • Siemens Energy services 2,200 power-generation units across 1,100 sites. Field crews (30–300 people/site) need constant access to technical resources, drawing comparisons to running a traveling mobile factory (18:03–19:36).
  • Historical challenges: Teams lugged boxes of manuals and relied on slow, unreliable communications—even mailing photos for remote engineering review (22:23).

Connectivity Revolution

• Now, 5G slicing enables live 4K video streaming from job sites, seamless collaboration with global engineering teams, instant document access, and efficient payroll/logistics (22:23–23:53).

  “I need whatever environment my people are working at to seem like they’re sitting at headquarters and have access to all the same information.” — Steve Douglas (23:53)

Business Value

• Reduces maintenance time, saves costs, and multiplies operational flexibility (23:12).
• Particularly crucial in remote plants, using 5G and satellite to guarantee connections (24:01).

5. Case Study Selection & Cross-Industry Impact

(25:43–27:02)

• T-Mobile intentionally pilots Super Mobile with high-impact partners (CNN, Siemens, F1) to demonstrate value in critical, visible applications.
• Approach: Identify customer “pain points” in industries where adaptive, secure connectivity is transformative.

6. Capabilities and Untapped Applications

(28:38–29:54)

• Super Mobile’s “three legs”:
  1. Slicing for adaptive, tailored bandwidth
  2. Built-in security for network-level protection
  3. Satellite capabilities for always-there connectivity, even in the wild
• Untapped use: Large-scale events, political conventions, remote government workers, and safety-led field operations.

7. The Potential to Rethink Entire Workflows

(29:54–33:48)

Changing the Nature of Work

• In both energy and journalism, connectivity advancements eliminate previously mandatory steps (e.g., walking back to trailers for manuals, waiting for photo runners).
• See-What-I-See: Real-time video lets engineers or journalists collaborate instantly, eliminating documentation delays or miscommunication (31:53).
• Next-Gen Journalism: CNN’s adaptive live news service (rolling out in 2026) will further extend mobile-first, AI-powered capabilities (32:48).

8. Visions of the Future: Wish Lists & AI

(33:48–42:43)

Disruption of Wired Networks

• Slicing replaces what used to require dedicated physical wiring, portending the transformation (and sunset) of wireline enterprise networking (34:08).
• Noted: Massive possibilities in healthcare, where EMS, ambulances, or bystanders can stream real-time video to experts during emergencies (35:06–36:48).

AI Integration

• AI will add diagnostics and predictive power, especially in maintenance (overlaid data, pattern recognition in field reports) (37:42).

  "We've got years worth of running data, we've got years worth of inspection reports. How do you overlay those... and have AI start doing smarter maintenance?" — Steve Douglas (37:42)

• Journalists may soon have AI-powered context—identifying objects or events in live footage to improve correctness and precision (41:32–42:09).

9. Reflections: Lessons from Invisible Infrastructure

(42:43–45:40)

• Unpredictable Innovation:
  • Even creators of new infrastructure seldom foresee all its applications.
• Efficiency is Always Lagging:
  • Seemingly optimized systems (news vans, satellite trucks) are upended by new platforms offering better, more flexible performance.
• A New Pillar of Trust:
  • Reliability becomes as central to trust as transparency and fairness; infrastructure that minimizes outages, misfires, and errors—especially in critical settings—builds organizational trust at a new level (44:38).

Memorable Quotes

• "This technology allows our reporters to literally have a satellite truck in their hands so they're not dealing with cups and strings and, like, waiting on lines for other reporters..."
  — Guy Griggs (16:37)

• “It's these sorts of conversations...that then gives us the ideas of how can we shape the technology and build the technology in a way that addresses the need.”
  — Mo Kadaba (43:30)

• "We are working towards a new definition of trust here... now we’re adding this fourth component of reliability. I can reduce the number of catastrophic power outages or system breakdowns. I can reduce the error rate of a journalist at the scene..."
  — Malcolm Gladwell (44:38)

Notable Moments & Timestamps

• Origin of Slicing at T-Mobile: (04:29–07:53)
• CNN’s Live Field Test: (12:55–14:46)
• “Satellite truck in your hand” analogy: (16:37–16:48)
• Siemens describes remote workflows then and now: (17:39–23:53)
• Business case selection strategies: (25:43–27:02)
• Potential for healthcare, government, future AI uses: (34:55–39:23)
• The evolution of reporting and trust: (41:32–44:38)

Conclusion

This episode exposes the often-unseen technological scaffolding—specifically, 5G slicing and adaptive connectivity—that now underpins mission-critical operations in news media and power generation. As Gladwell and guests underscore, the true impact of these advances will only emerge as industries reimagine their most fundamental workflows, accelerate innovation with AI, and transition to a new, reliability-centered definition of trust.