Telecoms CXOs talk 5G, adoption and digital-first customer engagement
I attended the Bridge Alliance’s second part of their CXO Digital Forum — a moment where my past and present lives collide in a beautiful way. Here are some highlights, quote-sized.
The Bridge Alliance is truly a “well-kept secret” (as put by 3G4GUK at Total Telecom Congress 2019), with 34 member operators globally (tweet image by Dean).
Today the operator alliance gathered in a forum to discuss 5G, enterprise collaboration, the adoption of digital-first customer service and engagement, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS).
SK Telecom’s Vice President & Head of Cloud Labs, Dr Lee Kang-won, shares the latest in their 5G vertical use cases. He explained the case for 5G in the factory, citing an example of having video cameras in the factory process, that uses video analytics to determine if parts can be used or should be discarded. The need for low latency, high bandwidth and analytics capabilities spells the clear need for 5G.
During this cross-operator 5G sharing, terms like network slicing, edge and private networks kept surfacing.
PCCW Global’s Chief Executive Officer, Marc Halbfinger, drops a timely reminder in his sharing, that 5G is a visualization of a technology and what consumers want is what they can do with it; the use cases. We often a lot about the technology as an industry, and what clients are looking for are the use cases and how it will benefit them.
He also mentions use case standardization, which the experts continue to elaborate on in the event as one of the go-to-market approaches, to help with striking the balance between a bespoke solution and one that is scaleable.
Ben Gesing, Global Head of DHL Trend Research, says lots of industries are asset heavy and before we can do anything, we first need to take all these assets online. That is why technologies like IoT and 5G are important.
Globe Telecom’s Senior Vice President, Enterprise Group, Peter Maquera says the way to tap on and meet customer needs in Philippines now is to build the relevant ecosystem (relevant emphasized) that catalyzes the customer’s digital transformation journey.
In summary, key takeaways:
- 5G is an opportunity for operators to get closer to the customer (both consumer and enterprises)
- While it’s tough to beat the speed of innovation, it’s important to journey with customers and not go faster than they can keep up — timing is key
- 5G priority segments (customers) are fragmented across markets
What a way to start my Tuesday morning — it’s been a while since I’ve attended a half-day event and it’s the best feeling to see all the familiar faces again. One thing’s consistent for sure — there is value in knowledge sharing, and the benefits of working together are apparent. That’s why alliances like Bridge Alliance are so important to orchestrate players towards a common goal for the benefit of the customer/consumers and the industry.
Disclosure: The author used to work in Bridge Alliance from 2017–2019 and this is not a paid partnership or a partnership of any kind. At time of writing, the author of this blog is an Ericsson employee. The author’s participation in the event was unrelated to being an Ericsson employee and thus, in no relation to her current employment status. All views here are the author’s. Some quotes have been edited for flow of reading and are not direct quotes.
