PLATFORM ECONOMY
An open debate on the future of service providers
PLATFORMECONOMY
As service providers begin the move from hardware-restrained to software-defined services - mirroring the transformation already achieved by the Internet giants - there comes a fork in the road. Turn left for some very big operational efficiencies - but mostly business as usual. Turn right for a new mindset and a transformational business opportunity - to become a platform.
ADTRAN is a leader in the field, with a uniquely informed perspective on what this software-defined revolution makes possible for telcos and MSOs. Any transformation depends on more than technology. Our industry needs to examine and understand the broad opportunities, as well as the specific threats. We need to gauge the shift needed in mindsets and skill-sets. The regulatory environments needs to be supportive. And so on.
We aim to promote and support the full width of the debate. The discussion starts here…
Laure Reillier is an advisor to disruptive, high growth platform businesses at Launchworks & Co and author of “Platform Strategy: How to Unlock the Power of Communities and Networks to Grow Your Business.” We asked Laure to overview the choices and challenges confronting service providers as they seek to understand the potential and threats of the platform economy.
Read Laure's Blog
What’s the future of service providers – telecom and cable companies – in the emerging platform economy? Connectivity and mobility are fundamental, for sure. But right now it feels like our industry is just a spectator as the really big changes unfold. No more a participant in that transformation than, say, Goodyear and Continental are in the tectonic shift to autonomous electric vehicles...
Read Gary's Blog Post
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Here are some expert thoughts on some of those issues. We’d like to hear yours.
Service providers need to accelerate their move to an open, cloud architecture to enable SD-Access and gain access to the platform model. This will require a large shift in mindset to displace decades of evolution of the “pipeline” business, where service providers introduced one service at a time. The communications industry needs to put more power into the hands of its customers, giving them a platform that enables them to connect to more resources.
Read Scott's Blog Post Moving Telecom to a Web-scale Platform
Richard Feasey – until recently Group Public Policy Director at Vodafone plc and currently an adviser and lecturer on business strategy - argues that regulators should welcome the development of telco platforms, provided they have support from both to digital producers and consumers.
Read Richard's Blog Post
As margins in existing markets erode and technology such as cloud and 5G create new business models and opportunities, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) now recognise that successful digital transformation requires radical change.
Read Nik's Blog Post
The telecoms industry and its entourage descended on Nice for its annual brushing shoulders with the Cannes film festival in May. Apart from meeting with many senior telecoms and supplier contacts, it is a good barometer for what is happening in the industry. I chaired the Digital Platform Economy & API track on the opening day. Here are my reflections:
Read Chris' Blog Post
These twinned technologies enable the platform to be open, programmable and scalable. Platform producers are able to innovate continuously and rapidly. And the evolving range of services is simultaneously highly optimised and highly diverse.
Nothing has the potential to shake up the telecommunications access world more than the Central Office Re-architected as a Data Center (CORD) initiative, which was launched last year by ON.Lab and is now part of the Linux Foundation’s many open-source initiatives to open up communications networks.
Read Scott's Blog Post
There is a lot of talk about software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). But so far, the discussion has largely left out the access networks — mobile, broadband, and voice connections to the customer — which are crucial to building a full SDN and NFV platform. What exactly is required to build software-defined access (SD-Access)?
Influenced by the network and services scale and agility that data center networks have achieved over the past decade, telecommunications networks are now applying those same architectural principles to transform the way in which broadband networks are being built going forward. The resultant next generation network drastically streamlines service and application innovation to enable new revenue streams offsetting the increased competition from (Over-the-Top) OTT providers and the cost of maintaining annual double-digit LTE, enterprise and broadband traffic growth.
Read Kurt Blog Post