Sprint, the nation’s fourth largest wireless carrier, is moving into 2017 with plenty on its plate. The carrier continues to work to gain more customers while at the same time densifying and bolstering its wireless network.

In this first installment of our new executive interview series, Sprint’s Günther Ottendorfer discusses the carrier’s overall network priorities for the new year. Ottendorfer, Sprint’s chief operating officer for technology, also delves into Sprint’s network virtualization efforts, covering both software-define networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), as well as the operator’s position on network sharing. Ottendorfer even offers some insights into Sprint’s evolving small cell strategy, and his thoughts on Google’s Pixel phone.

Click on the video below to watch the full interview: