Telco in 20
Mar 8, 2022
Ep 36 – The Public Cloud is NOW
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Listen to the most exciting talk from MWC 2022 to learn how to turn the public cloud into a competitive advantage.
More episodes from Telco in 20
Sep 19, 2023
Nokia’s journey to becoming cloud native
Nokia revealed a significant rebrand at Mobile World Congress 2023, signally a shift in the company’s focus to enterprise and B2B, which it sees as the future of telecom. For this episode, I talk with Nokia Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Europe Azfar Aslam about Nokia’s new direction, the challenge of refactoring legacy products, and what’s in store as the hyperscalers work to become carrier-grade cloud providers.
Listen now to hear about:
* The balance of hardware and software in Nokia’s portfolio [04:34];
* How the company is adapting products for a public-cloud-driven future [06:44];
* How it weighs the benefits of refactoring for the public cloud against maintaining a common software base [10:30]; and
* Azfar’s thoughts on network workloads running in public clouds [12:51].
Links and Resources
* Check out Nokia’s technology vision for 2030. It talks about the network of the future (a network of networks!) and how open APIs and the monetization of those APIs will be key. Hmm, sound familiar? 🧐
* Read about Nokia’s super cool rebrand in The Verge.
* What is cloud native, and how can you be sure that vendors are designing their applications correctly? Watch my hilarious Top 5 List with TelecomTV and Ray LeMaistre where I explain this misused term.
* Check out Totogi’s _Whoosh!_ offering that can help CSPs pull developers from Twilio’s ecosystem and into an operator’s. You’ll need this for those network APIs.
* Check out Nokia’s press release about its work on DISH’s 5G standalone core network
* Learn about what DISH is doing with the public cloud and then check out my conversation with DISH Wireless EVP and Chief Network Officer Marc Rouanne.
* You can find the transcript for this episode here.
* Did we talk about dinosaurs in this episode? WE DID! RAR! 🦖 Sometimes dinosaurs can be cool, like when they’re movie stars and scare common folks. Watch the official trailer from Jurassic Park 2, which was filmed on Asfar’s favorite Hawaiian island, Kuwai.
Wanna talk public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
Follow DR
* Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in!
* Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know
* Follow Telco in 20 on Twitter @TelcoIn20
* Follow DR on X @TelcoDR
The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Platinum MarComm Award, a 2022 Gold Hermes Award, and was recognized as a Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a short review? It takes you seconds to do in your app and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews!
This week’s guest
About Azfar Aslam
Azfar is passionate about driving customer success and has shaped technology and business strategies for over 60 Communications Service Providers and Large Enterprises globally. His experience spans new technology evaluations and product introductions, from portfolio and investment optimizations to E2E evolution of communications networks and AI-enabled automation. Azfar has also been deeply involved in corporate strategies, including M&A, new market entry, and establishing new lines of business. His current focus includes helping customers chart their journey toward new value creation in industry 4.0 in the high-performance critical networks era.
Podcast Credits
* Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Royston, TelcoDR
* Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
* Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
* Editing: Andrew Condell
* Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
* Music: Dyami Wilson
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Sep 5, 2023
Ep 74 - It’s time to take on Twilio!
The telecom industry agrees that the future of 5G and enterprise telco lies in monetizing network APIs. But communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) company Twilio has been eating telco’s lunch by not only capturing messaging revenue, but also dominating enterprise IT departments.
For this episode, I’m sharing my recent TelecomTV talk about how telcos can beat Twilio and take back what’s theirs. I share a three-step plan for regaining a strategic position within enterprise IT departments, and give a sneak peek at a new Totogi CPaaS product that can help.
Click play to hear:
* What’s happened to telcos’ Application-to-Person (A2P) APIs market share over the last decade [03:51];
* The big difference Twilio-compatible APIs could make [05:35];
* How telcos can use owner economics to undercut Twilio pricing [06:38];
* How Totogi’s latest product, _Whoosh!_, can help [07:45]; and
* Why telcos need to start now [09:26].
Links and Resources
* Check out the video version of my talk, released as part of TelecomTV’s Cloud Native Telco Summit. You know how much I rock a video talk!
* Learn more about the awesome power of _Whoosh!_
* Twilio has been running circles around telco. Read about why it happened in my monster blog, Telco execs: Are you jealous of Twilio?
* Read about the activist fight over at Twilio in The Information (subscription) and Reuters.
* Check out Twilio’s Investor Day 2022 deck - tons of great information in this resource.
* Come meet the Totogi team at TM Forum’s DTW - Ignite in Copenhagen on September 19 - 21. Grab a delicious coffee at the Totogi Supercharged Cafe (plus, we’re donating to Unconnected.org for every cup served), and stop by our stand for a _Whoosh! _demo.
* We’re partying in Copenhagen! Don’t miss our launch party on September 19 – DM me on X or LinkedIn for details and an invite.
* Why all of the sudden interest in Twilio? Learn more about TelcoDR’s purchase of CPaaS company, Kandy.
* View the transcript for this episode.
* Did you catch my Mickey Mouse hands at the end of the video? It’s so I can slap Twilio around on behalf of telco. I’m thinking of taking the hands to Copenhagen and wearing them at the conference. Want a pair of your own? Buy them here
Wanna talk public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
Follow DR
* Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in!
* Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know
* Follow Telco in 20 on X @TelcoIn20
* Follow DR on X @TelcoDR
The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Platinum MarComm Award, a 2022 Gold Hermes Award, and was recognized as a Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a short review? It takes you seconds to do in your app and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews!
Podcast Credits
* Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Royston, TelcoDR
* Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
* Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
* Editing: Andrew Condell
* Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
* Music: Dyami Wilson
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Aug 22, 2023
Ep 73 - Can telco compete in CPaaS?
The Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market is expected to hit $60 billion by 2030. Telcos deserve a big piece of this revenue—after all, their networks power CPaaS. But up until now, they’ve lost customers and revenue to companies like Twilio that make it easy for developers to add capabilities to products without having to navigate complicated telco organizations.
But the landscape is shifting. With the cloud native capabilities of 5G and initiatives like the GSMA’s Open Gateway, there are signs that telcos can take back the CPaaS reins. For this episode, I talk with Yesmean Luk, principle consultant and practice lead at STL Partners, about the future of CPaaS and what telcos need to do to recapture lost enterprise revenue.
Listen now to hear:
* Why CPaaS is a huge opportunity for telco [04:32];
* What needs to happen to make Open Gateway work [07:13];
* Why enterprise developers will be key to recapturing lost revenue [14:49]
* How having a software mindset can help [16:09].
Listen now by clicking play above or subscribe through your favorite podcast platform—see the links in the right column above.
Links and Resources
* Don’t miss my September 5 TelecomTV talk about why now is the time for telcos to take on Twilio. It includes a sneak peek at an awesome new Totogi CPaaS product.
* The Totogi team will also be demonstrating our CPaaS offering and our game-changing Charging-as-a-Service at TM Forum’s DTW - Ignite in Copenhagen from September 19 - 21. (And of course we’ll be throwing an awesome party. DM me on X or LinkedIn for details and an invite!)
* Yesmean and I met when we took part in a CPaaS Acceleration Alliance panel. Check out its recent State of CPaaS report.
* Recent headlines confirm that a lot is happening in the CPaaS space:
* March 8, 2023: Skyvera Acquired American Virtual Cloud Technology Assets
* July 17, 2023: Proximus Group acquired a nearly 60% stake in Route Mobile
* July 21, 2022: Ericsson completes its $6.2B acquisition of Vonage
* Read my recent blog, Telco execs: Are you jealous of Twilio?
* You can find the transcript for this episode here.
* Yesmean and I both think telcos are ready for a CPaaS comeback. Check out this highlight reel from one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history, when the New England Patriots rallied from being down 28 points to beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in Super Bowl LI.
* When you’re done, take a look at this video of LL COOL J’s Mama Said Knock You Out, aka “Don’t call it a comeback!”
Wanna talk public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
Follow DR
* Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in!
* Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know
* Follow Telco in 20 on Twitter @TelcoIn20
* Follow DR on X @TelcoDR
The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Platinum MarComm Award, a 2022 Gold Hermes Award, and was recognized as a Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a short review? It takes you seconds to do in your app and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews!
This week’s guest
About Yesmean Luk
Yesmean is a principal consultant at STL Partners and leads the Private Networks practice. She has led major strategic growth projects with both operators and technology companies globally. Her focus has been on helping clients figure out how to drive growth in a B2B2X ecosystem, including in domains such as private networks, network slicing, edge computing and network APIs. She has also authored several thought-leadership reports across these areas and is a regular speaker at renowned industry events. Before joining STL, she held various consulting roles at Deloitte and IBM.
Podcast Credits
* Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Royston, TelcoDR
* Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
* Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
* Editing: Andrew Condell
* Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
* Music: Dyami Wilson
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