Telecom Leaders in Asia Stress Need for Collaboration and Partnerships

At the Digital Leaders Programme at MWC Shanghai, I was among some of the most senior leaders in China and the Asia–Pacific region to discuss the role of AI and 5G-Advanced in unlocking new value. The official theme this year mentioned neither of these technologies by name, “Accelerating digital transformation for sustainable development”. But the 17 industry executives* attending still highlighted them consistently throughout the discussions, especially what they mean for cross-sector partnerships and how telecom players could best use them.

Three challenges came up as common themes. Digital technology needs to do more than simply exist; we need to unleash value from it. In a way, this sets large technology companies apart from newcomers which often appear to be driving forward because it’s possible and interesting and not always because they have a clear business plan for the technology.

On AI, there was talk of the need for an industry-wide AI action plan. Many of the attending companies are already actively using and developing AI tools. They voiced that often, because the technology is so new to many, there isn’t enough coordination for different AI efforts.

Speakers also discussed the challenge of acquiring and retaining the talents and skill sets needed for the industry to evolve. In AI, the problems seem especially acute because of the apparent greater ability of technology companies to acquire the best talent and retain it. Where once telecom companies were at the leading edge of innovation and everyone desired to work there, it’s often other technology firms that now have that appeal when hiring.

The idea of moving from “telco to techco” came up, again. This is one of those phrases that’s far from new and it risks becoming a label that discourages deeper thoughts on what it actually means and what the industry needs to do. Just like the term “digital transformation”, executives should consider precisely what steps must be taken to innovate, become more efficient, and especially to open new revenue streams rather than relying on what’s fast becoming a hackneyed phrase.

One speaker mentioned that they had embraced digital transformation since 2017. That’s a long time ago. Back then, LTE was the dominant mobile technology, not 5G-Advanced, not even 5G non-standalone, which was still two years away from initial deployments. It’s time to use different terms to drive our thinking.

Attendees widely agreed that AI must be at the heart of this new framework and that it has accelerated the pace considerably. Many of the ideas discussed considered the role of data and AI, tackling questions like how to best acquire and manage the right data to inform our models, what this means for companies and especially how companies work together — how can the AI models and vast data sets be easily shared as part of industry collaboration? How can we unlock revenues while managing the costs of using such vast data sets? We need to do both to unlock real value and profits.

Partnerships and maximizing these relationships was the third challenge discussed. It’s clear this is essential, to tie together the best technology and telecom companies, and to unlock value in different sectors of the economy, for example in manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and logistics. With the complementary capabilities of telecom and technology companies, there are obvious and valuable reasons to work together.

In China and across Asia, telecom leaders recognize the importance of digital development not only to make profits, but more widely to support and progress whole economies.

The attendees at this Digital Leaders event indicated we’re just starting down that path. Alongside the presidents of all three mainland Chinese operators and Far EasTone, the CEOs of ZTE and GSMA, senior leaders from Huawei, Lenovo and Viettel, this year’s event featured executives from Siemens and General Technology.

*The attendees at the Digital Leaders Programme event were: Mats Granryd (GSMA), Sihan Bo Chen (GSMA), Zhengmao Li (WBBA), John Hoffman (GSMA), Yimin Lu (General Technology), Biao He (China Mobile), Baojun Liang (China Telecom), Gin Jian (China Unicom), Chee Ching (Far EasTone), Ziyang Xu (ZTE), Nguyen Dinh Chien (Viettel), David Wang (Huawei), Edward Tian (Asialnfo), Jun Liu (Lenovo), Shaun Collins (CCS Insight), Jake Saunders (ABI Research) and Nicholas Hansen (Siemens)