A big thank you to Telecom TV for their continued support of the Telco 2.0 ‘executive brainstorm’ series. We’ve already communicated some of the general sentiments coming out of the event here. Now videos of some of the stimulus presentations are available on the Telco2.0TV site (here).

Below is an initial selection of our favourites: Amazon’s ‘flywheel’ for growth, the two-sided telecoms Business Model, Telephony 2.0, Vodafone’s new open mobile internet platform, Long Tail de-bunked, Turkcell walking the talk, Impact of the Credit Crunch on investor sentiment, Clarion call for Change:

First, Dr Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, describes Amazon’s platform business model and its ‘flywheel’ for growth (see analysis of the key lessons for telcos here):

Continue reading "Videos from Telco 2.0 event, November 2008, London" »

Posted at 10:17 PM | Link to this article

As well as customer data, a huge theme at the last Telco 2.0 event was transactions. So many of the delegates were interested in how telcos can facilitate them, earn money from them, bill for them, secure them, authenticate them… we’ve said in the past that the future of value added services, at least, is in creating a huge transaction processing platform. For the first time, we had an excellent practical example.

Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels’ presentation was an inspiring example of just what can be achieved by understanding both transaction processing, and the business model you need to generate the transactions.

Continue reading "Transactions: telcos' future in one word" »

Posted at 2:08 PM | Link to this article

The opportunities and pitfalls of the telcos’ vast stash of CDRs (Call Detail Records) and phone bills have been a top theme here at the Telco 2.0 event. Last year, you may remember, we said on this blog that in the future, so many new applications will need contextual data to function that we’ll need to think of how subscribers will take their data shadow with them when they churn. It looks like this is going to be more important than ever.

Continue reading "CDR = Customer Data Revolution" »

Posted at 1:06 PM | Link to this article

Telco 2.0 is working closely with the TM Forum on a number of important cross-industry projects, not least our research into new business models for video distribution. We’re delighted that Jim Warner, their Deputy Chairman and VP of Digital Media, will be a panelist at the Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm on 4th November in London.

Jim’s been playing a leading role in brokering relationships between Hollywood and telcos. He’ll be sharing his experiences on dealing with the Motion Picture Association (among others) and stimulating the debate on how to increase effective collaboration. In the meantime, below is Jim’s preview of the TM Forum’s own event in Orlando, 16-20 Nov. (We recommend you go or send a colleague if you’re at all involved in “Creating, Delivering and Monetizing Digital Services”):

With time running out in an American Football game, the team that’s behind goes into their “2 minute drill.” In essence, they abandon their strategy or game plan and start doing whatever it takes to score. Risks are taken, the pace is frenetic but the alternative is defeat. It’s a gamble worth taking.

I think telecom is getting close to this situation.

Continue reading "Telcos' 2-Minute Drill - Industry Standards for accelerating change" »

Posted at 10:15 AM | Link to this article

We’re delighted by the response to the event. There will 250-300 people taking part in the mass brainstorm, drilling down on how to turn two-sided business models into reality. Here’s an example of some of people booked in:
* Senior representatives from the corporate strategy departments of: BT, Telenor Group, FT/Orange Group, T-Mobile and Telefonica O2 Europe.
* Senior technical people: SVP/CTO, TeliaSonera; VP Technology Strategy, T-Mobile International; CTO, Telstra; CTO, Carphone Warehouse; CIO, Colt; VP Technical Strategy, 3UK; CTO, HP.

This complements the list of senior speakers/panelists which includes: CTO, Amazon.com; Group CTO, BT; CEO, BT Wholesale; CEO, Habbo Hotel; Group Director Internet Services, Vodafone; Exec Director, JP Morgan; CEO, Phorm; EVP, M:Metrics; VP Payments, France Telecom; VP Europe, Intel; CTO, Microsoft; Chair, Mobile Entertainment Forum; CTO, T-Mobile International…
Readers of this blog can claim a 10% discount on the price of attendance. Just contact us here. There are only 50 places left.

Posted at 12:24 PM | Link to this article

The next Telco 2.0 event (4-5 November, London) is looking extremely strong. A big thank you to the sponsors and partners, and to the senior industry speakers (presenters and panellists) who are participating. The latter includes:

Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com; Matt Bross, Group CTO, BT; Will Hodgman, EVP, ComScore; MungKi Woo, VP Payments and Contactless, France Telecom; Timo Soiminem, CEO, Habbo Hotel; Ben McOwen Wilson, COO, ITV ; Jonathan Dann, Executive Director, JP Morgan; Steve Zimba, Managing Director Global Telecoms Business, Microsoft; Will Page, Chief Economist, MCPS-PRS Alliance; Joachim Horn, CTO, T-Mobile International ; Helmut Leopold, Managing Director Platforms, Telekom Austria ; Andrew Bud, Chairman, Mobile Entertainment Forum ; Thomas Howe, CEO, Thomas Howe Company; Cenk Serdar, Chief VAS Officer, Turkcell ; Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services, Vodafone Group .

We are finalising involvement of a number of other important people from across the value chain too. Watch this space (and the event site) for updates…

Our analysts will also be presenting summaries of research into new business model opportunities in the following areas to help stimulate the debates: Online Video Distribution, Mobile Internet, Comms-Enabled Business Processes, Digital Kids, Leveraging Telco Customer Data. Again, watch this space…

NB: 20% discount on places at the event for those who book before end of August. Registration here

Posted at 1:10 PM | Link to this article

We’re delighted to announce the focus and draft agenda for the next Telco 2.0 event via its website here. We’ll be intergrating our research programme in tightly with this and looking to bring more ‘upstream’ players along (mediacos, banks, retailers, government, ASPs) to engender a strong debate. All comments, ideas, questions very welcome - either in comments section below or privately by email.

Posted at 10:47 AM | Link to this article

A TV show called Who Wants to Be A Millionaire is apparently now the most internationally popular television franchise of all time. Its popularity comes partly from the tension created by the huge amounts of money at stake and partly because of its interaction with the audience and with interested parties (‘phone a friend’).

At Telco 2.0 events we also have an ‘Ask the Audience’ format, but the difference is that the audience is also the contestant, the question master and, in fact, the prize giver too. That is to say, the audience (or ‘participants’ as we prefer to call them) represent companies who have a chance of taking a slice of the new $250bn+ platform opportunity, and they collectively can make it happen if they share knowledge and collaborate effectively. The new business model we are proposing is one which ‘floats all boats’.

We’ve already published here a set of FAQs that came out of the event. There is much more brainstorming output from it, the majority of which we keep for those who invested their time, effort and money to come to the event. However, there were also some votes at the event, the results of which are worth sharing here to demonstrate that there is a groundswell of opinion towards the propositions we are making. The votes were on these questions:

• How well do we understand the commercial needs of upstream partners (3rd Parties)? How well do upstream partners today understand the assets telcos have?
• What is the best ‘next practice’ for voice?
• Which approaches to fixed network video delivery will be most profitable 5 years from now?
• How important will new wholesale products be to mobile internet data revenues in 5 years from now?
• What is the best way of competing with a ‘Platform’ play?

Results here:

Continue reading "Telco 2.0 Strategy: Say It With Charts" »

Posted at 6:20 PM | Link to this article

Below are our responses to 56 tough questions about the new $250bn+ telecoms two-sided ‘platform’ opportunity generated anonymously in real time by the 200 participants at the Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm last month. The questions were responding to the opening stimulus presentation by a Telco 2.0 analyst which boiled down 400 pages of new market analysis into a 25 minute summary.

This rich set of ‘FAQs’ fall into 4 broad categories:
1) Market Opportunity and Structures.
2) Dealing with Google.
3) Operational issues.
4) Technology and Iinnovation.

We will continue to build up this FAQ list as we believe it’s a critical step in helping to increase understanding of the opportunity, refine it and define how to practically realise it.

A C-level exec at one of the world’s largest and most innovative telcos told us yesterday: “There is still too much organisational ignorance and resistance to these ideas. We need a better sales pitch and more details on the practical requirements to make it happen.” Our view is that the best way of starting to tackle ignorance and resistance is to give people the chance to process the ideas for themselves and to openly feedback back their issues and concerns. As a wise man once said:
“Tell me - I forget
Show me - I understand
Involve me - I learn”

The April event’s brainstorming process was essentially a large-scale involvement exercise. We think you’ll find the FAQs below instructive:

Continue reading "Telco 2.0 FAQs: A Starting Point for Change" »

Posted at 4:55 PM | Link to this article