About Us

Michael Thelander is the CEO and Founder of Signals Research Group (SRG), a US-based research consultancy that offers thought-leading field research and consulting services on the wireless telecommunications industry. Its flagship research product is a research product entitled “Signals Ahead,” which has attracted a strong following across the entire wireless ecosystem with corporate subscribers on five continents. The consultancy also published the first independent study of next-generation wireless economics, which many industry followers consider to be the preeminent study of its kind. In his current endeavor, Mr. Thelander is the lead analyst for Signals Ahead and he guides a team of industry experts that provide consulting services for the wireless industry, including some of the largest mobile operators, the top equipment OEMs, trade associations, and financial institutions. Prior to founding SRG, Mr. Thelander was an analyst with Deutsche Bank Equity Research where he followed the wireless industry. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Mr. Thelander was a consultant with KPMG (now known as BearingPoint) and a communications officer with the United States Army. Mr. Thelander has also published numerous articles for leading trade publications and engineering journals throughout his career. He has been an invited speaker at industry conferences around the world, including Mobile World Congress, CTIA, the global series of Informa LTE summits, and 4G World. He is also frequently quoted by major news sources and industry newsletters, including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, The New York Times, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Fierce Wireless, RCR Wireless and Wireless Week. Mr. Thelander earned a Masters of Science in Solid State Physics from North Carolina State University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.  

Mark Schulz is Vice President of Wireless Technologies for Signals Research Group, LLC. In that capacity he is responsible for the detailed analysis, evaluation and modeling of advanced wireless technologies. Prior to joining SRG, Mr. Schulz was an independent consultant in the wireless communications industry. As a consultant, he provided technical due diligence to the Venture Capital community and independent research for the evaluation of new and innovative technologies. Prior to consulting, Mr. Schulz was Director of Advanced Technology with Vodafone, PLC (previously AirTouch Communications) in Walnut Creek, California. At Vodafone, his responsibilities included the evaluation of new technology for wireless applications providing strategic guidance to executive management for potential investment and/or network implementation. As part of the technology evaluation process, he developed detailed network business economic models including traffic modeling, radio coverage and capacity dimensioning. Prior to joining Vodafone, Mr. Schulz was in the aerospace industry with Space Systems Loral, Lockheed Missiles and Space, Martin Marietta, and Hughes Aircraft. His responsibilities included antenna design, communication systems analysis and electromagnetic scattering analysis. Mr. Schulz received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.

Emil Olbrich is currently VP of Networks with Signals Research Group. Prior to this he was head of LTE research, development, test and evaluation for the Public Safety Communications Research Program where he deployed the first and most diverse Public Safety 700 MHz LTE test lab in the world with over 70 participating vendors and commercial carriers. He was responsible for the specifying, deploying and maintaining the entire ecosystem of LTE which included devices, air interface, transport, radio access network, evolved packet core, IP networking, IMS core and application servers. He also led the team efforts, which include standards work, test case development and test case execution. Mr. Olbrich has over 20 years of experience in the field of wireless telecommunications. He has worked primarily in R&D at some of the largest telecommunication companies in the world – such as Motorola, Qualcomm and Ericsson. His scope of work includes deploying and operating LTE infrastructure (RAN, EPC and IMS) from numerous Tier 1 vendors; testing new LTE mobile devices from multiple suppliers; testing, deploying and operating some of the first commercial CDMA networks; serving as Lead Project engineer for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and as the Project Manager for the China Ministry of Information Industry 3G testing in China; and supporting the early development of HDR (EV-DO and EV-DO Rev A). He has been a speaker at events such as the GSMA Mobile World Congress, LTE North America, 4G World, International Wireless Communications Expo and LTE World Summit. Mr. Olbrich has a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from Southern Illinois University.