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DTW (Digital Transformation World)

DTWS: The world is running on digital

Day 2 of DTWS featured a star-studded line-up of telecom CXOs who explained how to cope with connectivity in times of crisis, turn ambition into reality and pivot business for success.

Arti Mehta
08 Oct 2020
DTWS: The world is running on digital

DTWS: The world is running on digital

Day 2 of the Digital Transformation World Series, October 8, featured a star-studded line-up of telecom CXOs who explained how to cope with connectivity in times of crisis, turn ambition into reality and pivot business for success. The full Day 2 Headliner session is available to watch on-demand now.

Panelists included:

  • Li Huidi, EVP & Board Member, China Mobile

  • Charles Molapisi, Group CTIO, MTN Group

  • Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries

  • Kiran Thomas, President of Reliance Industries

  • Anish Shah, President of Reliance Digital Platforms

  • Enrique Blanco, CTIO, Telefónica

  • Sigve Brekke, President & CEO Telenor Group, Telenor

  • Ruza Sabanovic, Group CTIO of Telenor

  • Steffen Roehn, Chairman of TM Forum and EVP at Bain & Company


Focusing on collaboration


Roehn opened the discussion, explaining that he sees his role as guiding TM Forum members to an evolved sense of purpose.

“Today's priorities are very different compared to the past priorities,” he said. “So, being clear about the purpose of the Forum was the first thing we needed to do.”

In essence, this purpose is one of all-round collaboration, where previously members have focused on setting standards. “We have about hundred thousand professionals [who are members of the Forum] – technical people – who day in, day out work on our collaboration platform,” Roehn explained.

In discussing how the industry overall has coped and reacted to the current health pandemic, he noted that CSPs and their suppliers have risen to the challenge, providing the backbone of society at a time when being and staying connected is paramount:
“In Europe, all the operators within literally days have shifted their call center operations from physical to work from home – things that were unthinkable before, before the crisis.”

In his previous day’s Headliner speech, Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange and Chairman of GSMA, highlighted the benefits of collaboration between the two standards organizations, and Roehn stated that he is keen to pick this up as a strategic theme in terms of how to jointly help the industry become more open, digital and API-driven.

Handling the culture and skill challenges


Telenor CTO Sabanovic highlighted three main areas her company – and indeed the industry – will have to focus on in the digital evolution and revolution:

1 – Beyond connectivity, soft skills and collaboration: “We need to think beyond the connectivity, and [focus on] what value we are able to bring to the customer; we need technology that thinks [of the] customer and the business.” She added, “It is really going beyond Telenor, beyond the telco industry, and working with the industries across in order to modernize, deploy and apply all these technologies, to tap into all of this innovation, and to bring all the learnings back and execute in the markets where we are.”

2 - Leadership: “It is about setting [a] clear direction and inspiration. It is about empowering our teams to really explore and test different ideas and different projects. We need to know our stuff and we need to know what works and what doesn't and be transparent and open about that.”

3 – Ways of working: “In Telenor, we strongly believe in scaling globally and executing locally. What do we mean by that? We operate in nine markets, and rather than sitting in one place and designing the architecture from now all the way to the execution, we create the global teams in different domains.” She added that if there are common fundamentals across these different teams worldwide, then the company implements these as a policy or as guidance.

Expanding the Indian market


Instead of just focusing on selling to the existing market, Reliance Jio is taking on the challenge of expanding the market in India, said Thomas.
“We believe that India is a supply constrained market, and if we deliver the right value proposition, the demand for all products and services is limitless in India,” he said, adding that there are still billions of people in India who are connected via a 2G network but have not expanded to digital.

The company is focusing on creating affordable smartphones that fall at a cost of $70 and below, with basic 4G digital capabilities that will undoubtedly expand the business and consumer possibilities for these billions of people in India.

“We believe that what is good for India is good for us,” he added. “Whatever India needs is what we will be undertaking to support the country where it is headed.” The company strongly believes in the power of technology: “Right from our founding base, even when we were an industrial company, we have always used technologies to disrupt.”

Editor’s note: For more about how Jio managed to create a mobile business from nothing in just three years, read our coverage of Ambani’s comments.

Collaboration and the promise of 5G


Telefónica’s Blanco discussed his company’s commitment to have Spain at full 5G coverage by the end of 2021, and 100% coverage with fiber by 2025.
“[It’s] one of the most aggressive plans in Europe,” suggested TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts.

One of the key aspects of Telefónica’s 5G development is its partnerships with hyperscale companies: “If somebody is thinking that he can do it alone, he’s making a big mistake,” Blanco said.

As such, one of the telco’s key partnerships is a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable an easier journey to the cloud for enterprise customers.

Education for the nation (and beyond)


MTN Group’s Molapisi stated that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern, connected life, and his company is working very hard to ensure that it does this. One the ways it is doing this is through a digital education, something he’s very passionate about:
“So there’s no shortage on the demand side, you’re going to have to fix the supply side,” he explained. “You're going to have to fix the provision of the infrastructure, availability of tablets, infrastructure for the for students, and generally, for anybody who needs access.”

In terms of getting there, he pushes the virtues of collaboration: “You have to do that with a number of players, with other players in the market. You can collaborate with government to address the demand and the supply side.”

He went on to explain that MTN is enabling these educational platforms. “This is not just one MNO issue – it’s a societal issue,” he said. “We're working with many partners to be able to deliver it, and we have done many initiatives so far. We believe as we move forward, we’ll continue to do more.”

Creating a culture of digitalization


When talking about going beyond connectivity, Telenor’s Brekke poses the question: “How can we use new technologies like cloud computing? Like storage? Like analytics? How can we use that and create new type of services, and then monetize and grow from that?”

The answer? It’s about getting all the business leaders to drive this technology rollout and a culture of digitalization and digital innovation, not just the CTO. Doing this in practice isn’t easy, however.
“We call it tight, loose, tight,” he explained. “Leaders need to be clear on setting the direction – the first ‘tight’. Leaders need to be better to ‘let people loose’ – basically to empower them to figure out what to do. And then the last ‘tight’ is to have a better follow up system where people also are accountable.”

Driving forward with 5G


China Mobile’s Li Huidi explained that over the past few years, the telco has been focused on innovation-driven 5G development and has made important progress in key areas such as 5G use case definition, international standardization, research and development of key technologies, and application innovation.

He explained that delivering successful 5G services requires “the inspiration and the creation of new business models,” adding that China Mobile has explored four kinds of 5G business models, which are:

  • Network service model

  • Application service model

  • Capability exposure service model

  • ICT integration service model


“Currently, the network service model is the most widely used and the fully proven one which is characterized by a billing system of multiple dimensions, including data volume, network speed, network bandwidth, and the number of terminal connections,” he said. “Different customer needs can be met by flexible and tailored bundles of basic functions and value added functions.

“For instance, the 5G connectivity service with 150 megabytes per second uplink and 1 gigabyte per second downlink bandwidth provided to one of the enterprise customers to enable a real-time floating work detection system in their factory, which helps save over 20 million yuan, or 3 million US dollars [in] costs per year.”

You can watch the full Day 2 Headliner session on-demand now. Watch the rest of Digital Transformation World Series content live and on-demand now too! Not registered for DTWS yet? There’s still time. Join 12,000 of your peers online through November 12. CSPs receive complimentary passes. Sign up here.