What makes a ‘modern telco’? A Total Telecom Congress Keynote teaser!

With traditional telco revenues beginning to dry up, operators know they must evolve to survive – but how?

It has become increasingly apparent in recent years that existing telco business models are fundamentally flawed, with customers unable or unwilling to pay significantly greater sums for faster speeds alone.

As such, telcos are beginning to look further afield for new revenue streams, from creating their own content and even metaverse platforms to building suites of enterprise software solutions, aiming to usher in the era of Industry 4.0. The line between telco and techco are rapidly blurring together, with the world’s most innovative telcos seeking to transform themselves into more agile and diversified businesses to take full advantage of the capabilities generated by 5G, the Edge, and AI.

This myriad of diverse approaches begs the question: what should a telco business model look like in 2022? What role can connectivity providers play in an increasingly digital ecosystem and, more importantly, how can this make them money?

At this year’s Total Telecom Congress, the opening CxO Keynote Panel will discuss the fundamental question of ‘Building the “modern telco”’, exploring not only internal business transformation but also how to approach forging effective and innovative partnerships.

The panel will be moderated by Angel Dobardziev, Senior Director, European Consulting at IDC, who noted the paramount importance of this topic in the emerging ‘Digital-First era’.

“At IDC we believe that over the last few, and the next few, years we will have completed a shift from the Digital Transformation era to a Digital-First era, where revenues from digital business models become increasingly central to most industries. Telcos will remain central to the Digital-First era and have major opportunities to accelerate their growth via their focus on 5G, Edge, IoT Cloud, SD Network, and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS),” he explained.

“Whether telcos are able to capture these growth opportunities will depend not only on their investments in their respective value propositions and partnerships in these areas, but also their ability to effectively grow awareness among enterprise decision makers that they are credible providers – or enablers – of industry specific solutions that have these technology building blocks at their core.”

Joining Angel in discussion will be a trio of the industry’s leading telco executives, sharing their insights from their respective markets.

Speakers:

David Tudehope, Chief Executive Officer, Macquarie Telecom Group

Dr Rolf Nafziger, Senior Vice President, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

Babak Fouladi, Board Member – Chief Technology and Digital Officer, KPN

The telco landscape is changing and the industry must do likewise – and fast – if it is to reap the benefits of expensive infrastructure deployments and not be undercut by enterprising third parties.

Total Telecom Congress will take place live in the Business Design Centre in London on the 1^st–2^nd of November. It’s not too late to get your tickets! Book your place now.

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