The five-beam antenna and super multibeam antenna are major innovations developed by two of AT&T’s engineers to enhance the customer experience at sporting events, outdoor festivals and other gatherings that traditionally draw crowds. They’re also “critical tools for AT&T because of the rapid growth in mobile internet usage and data consumption,” says Rinne. “Compared to a traditional cellular antenna, the five-beam antenna can provide up to five times the mobile-network traffic capacity,” while the super antenna, with two rows of nine beams, has 18 times the capacity. The former is already being used in several markets, according to Rinne, and the latter made its debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival—or Coachella, as it’s more commonly known—in Indio, California, last month.

Innovation competitions 

Taking the lead from the likes of Donald Trump and “The Bachelorette”, many telcos are sponsoring innovation competitions as a means to access the best ideas and accelerate their incubation.  

Deutsche Telekom’s global Telekom Innovation Contest has brought out the best in entrepreneurs from Israel, Ethiopia, Iran, Taiwan, Sweden, and more. Of the approximately 350 external submissions and additional 100 that came from Deutsche Telekom employees, more than a third fell under the category of Communications Services; the remaining 60-plus percent gravitated toward Connected Homes, Energy, Virtual Platforms, and Cloud Computing.

Telefónica is combing the earth for marquee talent and ideas by way of its aforementioned Wayra incubator, which seeks to extend innovation throughout Latin America and Europe. Earlier this year Wayra’s first global call for project pitches from companies seeking technology acceleration generated a response of nearly 3,500 submissions, leading CEO Gonzalo Martín-Villa to comment that it “manages to give meaning to the true spirit of Wayra, which is to provide more opportunities for talent, regardless of where it comes from, to find a way to grow.”

And because it expanded the range of countries from which it would accept proposals, the incubator now has “a much more diverse perspective,” he said. “Capturing the interest of entrepreneurs from India, Russia and Panama, to name just a few, gives us a greater responsibility as a global accelerator.” Wayra plans to start the second leg of its international talent search by the end of June.

Innovation by API

One of the most prevalent examples of CSPs embracing innovation is their aggressive release of APIs, or application programming interfaces, a move that encourages developers everywhere to chip in and create new applications.

“AT&T is dedicated to helping developers achieve success and remains committed to providing this community with the cutting-edge APIs needed to help them bring innovative solutions to market quickly and easily,” says Carolyn Billings, associate VP of the company’s Developer Program. “By enhancing and adding great new APIs to our platform, AT&T is creating a win-win for everyone involved—developers are able to enhance their customers’ app experience while enjoying new revenue streams.”

Swisscom, Switzerland’s leading CSP, has begun using Apigee’s API platform to push forward a growing ecosystem of apps. “We are committed to empowering developers to create powerful apps built with Swisscom’s key network-based services,” says CTO Heinz Herren. “We needed a solution that could be used across all our API initiatives, both internal and external to Swisscom. Apigee has the technology ... and industry-specific expertise to drive our company-wide commitment to APIs. We expect that introducing APIs will dramatically reduce our time to market.” AT&T, KT, Telefónica, and Vodafone have also adopted Apigee’s platform. 

Whether CSPs sponsor contests, invest in buildings full of engineers, or open up their networks to upstart and specialty developers, innovations abound, from end-user public safety tools to small cells and chipsets, as the telecommunications space continues to increase in size and scope. These technologies will eventually power the world, connect minds and allow customers, networks and service providers of all kinds to reach farther than anyone has ever dreamed—and it all starts with the opportunity for development of a single idea.