Three very different operators talked about the transformation their networks are undergoing in preparation for 5G at an outspoken panel session on Tuesday at Digital Transformation World. They discussed their vision for the network of the future and the possible obstacles to achieving it, and the journey to get there.Nikos Katinakis,
Head of Networks & IT, Telstra, said, “First, the network of the future has to be automated. We must be able to provision a circuit or connection in a fully automated manner, in a way that the customer themselves has the ability to bring it up and down with the parameters they want.”
Elisabetta Romano, CTIO, TIM, was unequivocal in her company’s approach to preparing for 5G.
“5G is a compelling event for us to build platforms,” she said, but acknowledged that, “As a former PTT…we had stratified every kind of technology. You add layers when you buy new stuff so your architecture is all about Italian food, all ‘spaghetti and lasagne’.
“Our technology strategy is to separate the new and old…or you end up with new-old.”
She added, “We are going to simplify all the things we have already and close down whatever can be closed down.”
TIM is retiring its 3G network and planning to eliminate more than half its 700 operational and business support system (OSS/BSS) applications. She agreed that d
ecommissioning stuff is boring but essential, adding: “I need a product manager with mindset who starts every day asking, ‘What can I close down today?’”
Luc Noiseux,
Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Cogeco, represented mid-sized operators, which as he noted, don’t necessarily have the scale of Tier 1 CSPs. Still, its issues are strikingly similar.
Cogeco is the second-largest cable operator in Ontario and Québec, Canada, and operates in the US under the brand name Atlantic Broadband in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida.
Noiseux said although a lot of the conversation concerning 5G is around investment and digitization, a lot of the cost will be sunk into less glamorous aspects – “the civil work to deploy cables” for access and to provide backhaul, for example.
For him though the real enabler of 5G will be to bring all the access technologies into play – fixed, mobile, wireless, cable and fiber – and leverage them fully.
