Ramping up to the Great Telco Debate on December 4th
Since the inception of the idea for the Great Telco Debate in 2013, this time of year focuses the mind on what is shaping the telecoms industry. What debate topics and motions might we throw at the expert witnesses on stage and the audience in the room and via the Internet?
Waves of technology have come and gone: 5G, fiberisation, softwarisation, viand the now ubiquitous – or is it omnipresent – AI?
The acid test for me has always been the economics of demand and supply and what levers can be used to shift either side.
Demand, as we know, means connectivity is part of our everyday activities for personal, business and societal use. It is embedded in the way we do pretty much everything. On top of this comes the automation of the vast majority of processes which can be completed via various means of connectivity.
Supply is more of a challenge. The industry continues to focus on the inner workings and potential impact of all the contributing technologies to the end product of providing and supporting that connectivity. There is much more of a balance today between mobile (including WiFi) and fixed, the potential of satellite, and an acknowledgement that connectivity is often not the end product being consumed but a means to an end.
In many ways, AI is a distraction from reshaping and repositioning the telecoms industry’s products to be fit for purpose for decades to come.
So, as the debate topics and motions begin to take shape, let’s keep that North Star goal in mind: how telecoms and connectivity fits into the broader developments of our economies as AI finds its own position in every ecosystem, every business and every one of our lives.
*Got a topic or motion you think the Great Telco Debaters should cover?* Ping me, Graham Wilde, Guy Daniels or Ray Le Maistre and I will do my best to blend it into the arguments on December 4th to fuel the debate and shape your thinking.