Facilitating the Future Telco
Meeting Vaibhav Dongre of TCTS at Mobile World Congress 2019, it was clear that although the communications industry has come a long way, transformation is very much an ongoing prospect for telcos
Meeting with TCTS to discuss the transformation of communications
It is safe to say that advancements in telecommunications technologies during the first two decades of the 21st century have been fundamental to the monumental progression seen in global digital transformation.
From the launch of the world’s first 3G commercial network in 2001 to recent 5G LTE developments, quoting speeds up to 50 times faster than that of the former, communications service providers (CSPs) and associated industry innovations have served to revolutionise both the consumer and enterprise spheres.
Much of this is owed to the work of CSPs themselves, readily investing in new technologies in order to support these ever-growing developments.
“The kinds of technologies we are now dealing with, whether its analytics, AI, automation, or other prominent trends, telcos have become more capable of making intelligent decisions,” reveals Vaibhav Dongre, Global Head of Marketing at Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS) as we sat down with him at the company’s booth during Mobile World Congress 2019.
“Take the internet of things, for example. If a sensor in an autonomous car fails, there’s no time for human intervention. What there is, however, is an opportunity for connectivity solutions to step in, solving the problem temporarily until a permanent fix is provided, using rapid, intelligent decision making.”
TCTS is one business helping to facilitate the rising use of new and emerging complex communications technologies.
A subsidiary of Tata Communications, it was formed in 2006 to consolidate, centralise and optimise the wider company’s operations internally, but despite this, it wasn’t long before the subsidiary’s capabilities and expertise were noticed by others.
“Pretty quickly we had CSPs coming to us and asking the same question – if you’re doing it for yourselves, why not do it for us as well?” explains Dongre.
Capitalising on the opportunities presenting themselves, TCTS began to work with other enterprises and has since established itself as a provider of core transformational services, working with telcos the world over.
“Scenarios like that of autonomous vehicles that we’re heading towards will be facilitated by the future telco, entities that will be the flag bearers of intelligent connectivity, operating as ubiquitous connectivity hubs,” Dongre continues.
Scenarios like that of autonomous vehicles that we’re heading towards will be facilitated by the future telco... operating as ubiquitous connectivity hubs”
Evaluating innovation
The idea of the future telco is one that TCTS has been exploring extensively of late, aiming to identify the key transformation priorities of CSPs.
This examination manifested itself in a study, commissioned by the company itself and conducted by Ovum, that evaluated these priorities amongst 60 major telcos across the globe.
“From this we’ve seen that there are a number of steps that industry players are trying to take,” he reveals. “Many of these are related to simplification, retiring legacy technologies and replacing these, and the need of the hour is definitely automation.”