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Telstra is extremely active in the Asia-Pacific region, entering into a whole range of partnerships and joint ventures across the region
With traditional voice based revenues being rapidly eroded by advances in VoIP technology, carriers are having to realign their service offerings and their customer make up, in order to remain profitable.
Speaking at the Carriers World event in London on Tuesday, Telstra’s managing director for EMEA, Tom Homer, said that the current boom in Asia’s middle classes could lead to a steady, reliable revenue stream for carriers who move quickly.
"We are already seeing significant growth in all of the big Asian OTT players and they are already big customers of ours," Homer explained.
"As the Asian middle class increases dramatically over the next decade or so, their influence will only increase."
Telstra recently set up a joint venture with Indonesian network operator Telekom, with the specific aim of tapping into the country’s huge middle class.
"We set up the venture with [them] in Indonesia, specifically to take advantage of that explosive growth in the Indonesian market – it’s a country of 200 million people, it’s the fourth most populous country in the world, so we are definitely looking to take advantage of that burgeoning middle class in Asia.
"The Asian middle class is not only driving the consumption of social media but it is also creating the type of businesses that we in turn can do business with," Homer explained.
Homer said that forming partnerships with telcos and service providers in-country was key to the success of international firms looking to cash in on Asia’s success.
"In order to succeed, you have to partner up. Increasingly, however, it’s a new type of partnership that is required, as the lines between the wholesale and carriers sectors blur. Customers are more demanding than ever before and we need to evolve in order to meet their demand," he concluded.
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