Asian telcos need “destructive innovation” as the telecom business transits from hardware, walled gardens and wireline to software, open ecosystems and wireless.
Hyun-Myung Pyo, president of KT’s mobile business group, told Mobile Asia Congress attendees on Thursday that faced with challengers like Apple and Google, operators needed to change their mindset.
Pointing to a survey of the world’s 30 most innovative companies by Business Week and Boston Consulting Group, he said half of the companies listed were from the technology sector, but not a single telco was on the list.
The industry is moving towards an “OMPD – one person, multiple devices” era and it needs to “change its mindset and collaborate with other industries to provide seamless services” to meet diverse customer needs, Pyo said.
He pointed to cloud computing as one of the big opportunities.
“Telcos can create a new business model through cloud computing, and with it telcos could be competitive if we take advantages of our own strength – network infrastructure and service provision,” Pyo said.
Zhang Zhijiang, head of China Unicom’s technology department, said the Chinese operator was also pushing into the cloud, with an initial focus on using the technology in its management systems and OSS.
Huawei chief strategy & marketing officer Richard Yu, also speaking at the congress, said the company was looking to leverage cloud computing technology for their telco customers.
With cloud computing telcos and vendors can improve resource utilization from 20% to 70%-80%, through shared computing and shared storage, he said.