Vivek Gaur: Driving Innovation and Excellence in Telecommunications Engineering

Q: With 23 years of experience in strategic and operational leadership, what were some pivotal moments that shaped your career path to becoming Vice President of Engineering at Colt?

The most decisive moments were shifts in how I thought. I discovered early in my life that emotional steadiness turns crisis into clarity—and that the biggest issues often become the biggest opportunities when you stay calm, own them end-to-end, align smart people, and keep moving until the answer reveals itself. The other shift was evolving from ‘building great technical solutions’ to ‘delivering business outcomes.’ That meant translating complexity into clarity, measuring time-to-value, and making decisions through the lens of the customer and the P&L —so technology reliably shows up as faster delivery, higher availability, and real commercial impact. In short, the path was shaped by understanding the magic of emotional intelligence and evolving from building great tech to delivering business outcomes.

Q: What aspects of leading Colt's global engineering function do you find most rewarding, and how has your leadership philosophy evolved throughout your career?

• I am most energized by channeling talented teams toward defined business goals and seeing technology deliver—quicker execution, higher reliability, superior customer experience, and stronger financials—while cultivating leaders who are systems thinkers and clear communicators.
• Early on, I led by expertise—being the problem-solver in the room. Over time, my philosophy evolved to lead by multiplying others: set a clear purpose, give context, and trust great people to choose the route. I shifted from outputs to outcomes, from command to coaching, and from certainty to curiosity. I have learned that culture is a system: create psychological safety, celebrate progress over perfection, and meet hard problems with calm.

Q: How do you see the industry transition from 400G to 800G technologies evolving across European, Asian, and North American markets?

Colt observes that the transition from 400G to 800G technology is not uniform across all markets. The shift from 400G to 800G technology is driven by the increasing demand for higher bandwidth in data centres and telecom networks.

• Europe is adopting these technologies at a steady pace, driven by a strong focus on sustainability and energy efficiency. Its deployments are centred in metro and core networks to support cloud growth.
• Asia is the fastest-growing market, with a focus on a mix of 400G and 800G deployments fuelled by 5G rollouts and cloud expansion.
• North America leads the global adoption of 400G and 800G technologies, driven by AI workloads from hyperscale cloud providers i.e. Microsoft, Amazon and Google. The region's focus is on deploying 800G optics in data centres and long-haul networks, with challenges centred on power and thermal management.

Q: What key differences are emerging between telecommunications development in established markets versus emerging markets like India?

Key differences between telecom development in established and emerging markets.

Q: How will network virtualisation reshape telecommunications business models in the next five years?

Key Impacts of Network Virtualisation on Telecom Business Models

• Automation & Ecosystem Expansion: The use of AI-driven orchestration and open-source frameworks enhances operational efficiency and fosters a more collaborative, multi-vendor ecosystem, accelerating innovation across the industry.
• Cloud-Native Models: The shift to virtualized networks facilitates integration with cloud platforms, allowing for "as-a-Service" offerings and a move away from traditional models to flexible, subscription-based revenue streams.
• Service Agility: It allows for the rapid deployment of new virtualized services and the creation of "network slices", which enables telecom companies to offer customized services for specific industries like IoT and smart cities.
• Cost Efficiency: Virtualization enables dynamic scaling of network resources to meet real-time demand, which is essential for cost optimization and competitive Differentiation by decoupling network functions from proprietary hardware and using commodity servers instead, virtualization significantly reduces both CAPEX & OPEX, leading to faster return on investment (ROI).

Q: What specific insights or perspectives are you most looking forward to sharing with the Network X audience this year?

• Colt’s ground-breaking initiatives on future-proofing technologies
• Colt demonstrated defence-in-depth readiness to secure customer services from threats in Quantum-era.
• Colt conducted Quantum-safe network trials across Metro and Long-distances while developing partnership for quantum-encryption using Satellite for ultra-long-haul distances.
• Colt tested and introduced next-gen Terabit scale technology including across subsea distances
• Colt along with its partners i.e. Nokia and Windstream completed the first-ever 800GbE service trial between London and Chicago.
• Colt along with its partner Ciena completed the first ever .2 Tbps/wavelength trial over transatlantic link (i.e. Grace Hopper) achieving faster speeds while increasing spectral efficiency and route capacity.
• Leveraged Colt’s pioneering open-line IP-Optical converged layer to test 800G ZR+ and ramp up 400G ZR+ on IP Backbones.
• Sustainability – Colt is taking an active step of removing legacy optical technology from international networks and avoiding 200+ tons/year Carbon emission. Colt also developed tools to offer ‘greener’ solutions to our customers by partnering with technology vendors

Your NETWORK X Participation

Q: As telecommunications leaders gather at Network X, which industry conversations or collaborations do you believe will be most valuable for advancing network innovation?

Network X event is specifically designed to break down silos and foster partnerships among telcos, vendors, and regulators to accelerate innovation and redefine future business models.

Focusing area of Colt would be the following:

• Fiber & Optical Innovation: Driving the development of more sustainable and efficient IP-Optical transport solutions.
• Impact of AI, Cloud/Edge computing in Transport networks.
• Data Centre Evolution due to AI workloads focusing on energy efficiency and edge computing.