Publication of Best Practices for Telecom Innovation

TelecomTV/DSP Leaders World Forum (Windsor, UK)- Telecom Ecosystem Group releases A Best Practices Framework for the Telecom Ecosystem.

The document contains recommendations for telcos and telecom stakeholders to encourage startup investment and boost innovation.

Why:Telcos need significant innovation to address their key challenges of generating new revenue streams, managing costs, dealing with increasing complexity while making networks more robust to failures, cyber-attacks and environmental extremes. Telcos recognize that they need to change their procurement practices to gain access to, and fully exploit innovation emerging in the market.

How:The Best Practices document is the result of a two-year effort by industry veterans and entrepreneurs working together in the Telecom Ecosystem Group (TEG).  TEG held weekly meetings, interacted with telco senior executives, liaised with industry groups, standards organizations, and industry focused media to consider the following questions:

• What does innovation mean in the context of the telecom industry?
• How can supply chain diversity be encouraged and supported?
• What are the barriers to innovation, and how can they be overcome?
• How can investment risk be reduced?

TEG has been at the forefront of highlighting the innovation challenges that the telecoms industry faces and during this time, the problems with telco innovation have come to center stage.

What:The TEG consensus recommendations have now been published in a “A Best Practices Framework for the Telecom Ecosystem”

TEG plans, in conjunction with other industry organizations, to develop an action plan for achieving the objectives in the framework and invites the industry to provide feedback:

• Concrete steps to achieve the objectives

• Is there an existing body that would be willing to implement and operate such a framework?

Quotes:

John M. Cioffi (Hitachi America Prof EE, recalled, Stanford U and Chairman/CEO, ASSIA Inc.)said “The Telecom Ecosystem Group is addressing the true needs and issues in the communication service provider infrastructure and industry, specifically encouragement and cultivation of innovation at its grass roots in small companies and university spin outs.  TEG objectives for success, such as the “best practices” recommendations, would provide an incredible boost to the industry and stimulate investors by restoring their confidence that small-company innovation can provide good investment return.”

Caroline Chappell (Research Director, Cloud and Platform Services, Analysys Mason) said “Our research suggests that even the most advanced telcos struggle with the pace of innovation in an increasingly cloud and software-led world. As the TEG Best Practices Framework paper points out, start-ups provide the seed corn for innovation in the telecom sector, most recently around new, disaggregated and cloud-based network architectures. The health of such start-ups is intimately linked to telcos’ ability to harness innovation. So the TEG paper is timely in provoking industry debate around the relationship between telcos and start-up innovators and offers a welcome set of recommendations.”

About Telecom Ecosystem Group

Telecom Ecosystem Group is an informal team of telecom industry veterans and entrepreneurs meeting since 2019 to identify barriers to startup investment in the telecom industry. The group has regularly released interim recommendations which have been influential in broadening global awareness of the problem.

Contact

For feedback and questions about this document, or interest in participating in the follow-up discussions, email us at Enquire@TelecomEco.org

Source: TEG media announcement