WWT works with Cisco, VMware, Dell and many more to integrate wireless tech

by Linda Hardesty

World Wide Technology (WWT) is a St. Louis-based systems integrator that you've likely never heard of. But the company works closely with a lot of familiar names in the U.S. wireless space. WWT is the primary systems integrator for one of the Big 4 U.S. wireless carriers, although it doesn't name the carrier.

Joe Wojtal, CTO of WWT's Global Service Provider organization, said WWT operates a 1.1-million-sq-foot warehouse in St. Louis where every piece of this operator's RAN equipment from various vendors passes through. It's not just radio equipment from Ericsson and Nokia, but it includes everything from routing components to optical components, as well as compute equipment from the likes of Cisco and Dell. "We kit it together and send for deployment," said Wojtal. "This program has been in place for several years. The customer was struggling because they had so many distribution points around the United States."

WWT has also built a $500 million Advanced Technology Center in St. Louis where it can do validation work for customers that want to test new technology. "Given that mobile operators are focused on disaggregating mobile infrastructure, we're spending a lot of time with them," said Wojtal. WWT is working with Altiostar on radio access network (RAN) technology validation, and it's also working with Cisco and Affirmed Networks for mobile packet core technology innovation.