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Norwegian incumbent says IPX gives its opcos the agility and capability they need to quickly roll out new services.
Telenor’s head of wholesale Harald Krohg on Thursday said rolling out IPX is helping him better serve his most demanding customers: Telenor’s own retail operations.
"They are part of the family. And as part of the family, they feel comfortable with being very outspoken," said Krohg, CEO of global wholesale at Telenor, during Total Telecom’s IPX Summit in London.
The retail arm is the most demanding customer, he said. "They want everything, they want it yesterday, and they want it for free."
The Norwegian incumbent offers retail services in 13 markets, stretching from the Nordics to Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific.
"Retail operators are often very focused on their domestic competition," said Krohg. In contrast, his position gives him a bird’s-eye of trends in other countries, affording him an opportunity to pitch ideas to Telenor’s wholesale customers, which includes its own opcos.
And IPX is serving as the underlying platform that is enabling Telenor’s wholesale arm to roll out new services quickly, such as A2P messaging and LTE roaming, for example.
"It helps a telco be agile when you have that underlying platform," Krohg said.
The telco’s machine-to-machine business, Telenor Connexion, is also benefitting. For example, it uses Telenor’s IPX infrastructure to carry signalling traffic generated by the connected cars it serves, in whatever country they happen to be driven in.
"We are able to get good coverage and scale quickly, thanks to IPX…It is a clear example of how we’ve been able to support rapid growth," Krohg said.
