BANKOK, THAILAND - For Steve Bell, CEO of KeySo and moderator of this morning’s session on “Telecoms are going over the edge – is it time to pivot”, the language you use to describe innovative strategies in the telco sector is very telling, shaping those strategies as opportunities or challenges.
Responsible for engineering focus groups charged with the process of taking standards from incubation to development within the ITU’s TSB, Bilel Jamoussi’s glass is definitely half-full: he sees the ICT sector reaching out to verticals to create smart solutions and services, as “innovation at a broad level is moving to other sectors.”
Mark Summer commented on how broadband connectivity is now so established that not only can the developed world not imagine an offline-only existence, but rural and remote regions of emerging markets are being reached, as mobile technology and the drive for inclusion “brings in the crowd”. This has enabled a major shift in the focus of innovation, as the geographical boundaries to software development dissolve – you can innovate in emerging and developed, rural and urban environments alike. Echoing the theme of ITU Telecom World 2013, he warned that if the service providers try to hold this back or stifle it, they will lose out again – “If we don’t embrace this innovation and be carried by it we will be left behind.”
Emerging markets will be a leader in the innovation space as new user groups come online fast, driving new needs, solutions and uses – many of which will be unexpected, such as the use of WiFi for offloading, and will give rise to entrepreneurial business models. For “customers don’t always know what they want, and make innovative uses of existing or new products and services,” in the words of Charles Matondan at Vodacom Tanzania. And this is without factoring in the impact of SDNs, the Internet of Things and the impact of the innumerable benefits in socio-economic standing they herald.
Another angle on the position of innovation in the telecommunications industry was taken by Martin Venzky-Stalling, from Thailand’s Chiang Mai University, who pointed out that the telcos are not a single, monolithic sector but rather an ecosystem with many different infrastructures, different types of licences and fundamental definitions. As such, the responses to the current pressure points of OTTs, explosive data growth, open source and new technologies may be as numerous as there are telcos. Some will indeed become less exciting, more like utilities, resisting change, lobbying for regulatory status quo. Others will be shaken by the presence of innovation at the edge of network and amongst smaller, new players. There is clearly “a paradox between the fast pace of change and the slow resistance to that change within the telecom industry.”
In Steve’s words, “Resistance silos within telcos themselves or in ministerial or national bodies” block innovation. How to overcome that inertia and actively encourage the lifeblood of innovation It is about learning from other industries, utilizing ideas from other sources, interacting with local customers and bringing inspiration from the ground up.
Most African markets have multiple operators competing in the local market, allowing users to switch between SIM cards according to price and forcing the operators to keep traction with customer, Bilel pointed out, highlighting that the dynamic of the start up is challenging the traditional mindsets and models of the established players.
Operators should move into the innovation space, attract young innovators and finance them, bringing together the incumbent and those digital natives who are the biggest source of future innovation. It’s time to evolve from the old paradigm based on bandwidth to one based on quality of service, local content and enabling the consumer at the edge of network.
