Much like 2020, 2021 continued to be a year of change. While previously unusual terms such as social distancing, lockdown, and isolation became the global norm, the effect of the pandemic continued to trigger shifts in working practices industry-wide. Last year on Accelerators, we had the pleasure of catching up with some of the leaders embracing change and accelerating transformations in the telecoms and tech industries. So, in the first episode of the new year, we wanted to look back at how the telecoms industry transformed in 2021 and consider the predictions for 2022, with the CEO of Beyond, Angus Ward. 

In the latest episode of Accelerators, we spoke with Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond, to get his take on how CSPs will transform in 2022. We discuss structural shifts, such as the transformation from traditional comms to tech-comms, and why creating a real partner ecosystem is key to solving customer problems. And explore the exciting new opportunities emerging in 2022 for CSPs, including how Edge can accelerate a businesses’ technical capabilities at a reduced cost, what steps CSPs can take to finally crack the SMB market in 2022, and the importance of SaaS in the move towards greener operations.  

Stream now to hear how your business can go further, faster, and beyond in 2022.  

“CSPs need to organize in a way that enables them to bring to market what the customer wants to buy” Angus Ward 

When IoT first emerged, the expectations for its uptake were huge, with some predicting there would be over 40 billion connected devices by 2020. So, why is there only a quarter of that number in use today?  

G+D and newly acquired Pod Group believe that approaching IoT from the enterprise perspective will transform the IoT landscape. By breaking down complex barriers, such as fragmented ecosystems and high administrative burden, they believe vendors can accelerate IoT adoption across all enterprises, and crucially SMBs.  

In this episode of Accelerators, we hear from Carsten Ahrens, CEO at G&D Mobile Security, and Sam Colley, CEO at Pod Group. They examine why IoT hasn’t yet delivered on its promises and explore what can be done to change this. We discuss why partner ecosystems must work cohesively for the customer, the SMB potential, why 5G will change the IoT game, and the importance of secure connectivity for data monetization.  

Stream now to hear how Pod and G+D plan to take IoT further, faster, and beyond its predictions.  

“If we really want IoT to scale, like all of the predictions, then SMBs also need access to all of the latest technology. But it needs to be affordable, simple, and accessible.” Sam Colley  

Just a few years ago, Lumen Technologies was another fiber based telecoms company – until they successfully transformed into a tech business driving innovation at the cutting Edge.

New technologies such as 5G, IoT, AI, and Edge are dramatically changing the telecoms landscape. But how are companies responding? Lumen Technologies is a business that has embraced the opportunity – refocusing its expertise, and helping enterprises around the globe to revolutionize their business with Edge-powered solutions.

In this episode of Accelerators, we hear from Chris McReynolds Vice President of Product Management, Cloud, and Data Services at Lumen. He talks about why it makes sense to move digital interactions closer to the end-user, overcoming the challenges around the adoption of edge technology, and the importance of the partner ecosystem in addressing different market needs as the future of Edge unfolds.

Listen now to hear how Lumen Technologies’ self-transformation journey has set this former telco on an excting new path – growing further, faster, beyond.

“A tech company is a company who listens well to its customers and has great agility to stay ahead of their needs.”

Situated between England and Ireland, with a population of around 100,000, the Isle of Man may not strike you as a hotbed for innovation. However, for Manx Telecom, its home has been the perfect location for them to go further, faster, and beyond. 

In our latest episode of Accelerators, we chat with Paul Craig, Head of IoT at Manx Telecom, about their formula for success - and discuss why Paul credits Manx's unique location and size for their development and growth.  

Paul dives into Manx’s journey to success and unpicks how their origins as a global SIM and voice provider led them on a path to connectivity and talking IoT. 

To hear why Manx Telecom has shown us that your size does not determine the scale of your success, tune into Accelerators now.  

‘The Isle of Man is a perfect testbed for testing and assessing new products and services because it’s small enough to manage but big enough to prove the concept.'  

Unlike 4G, 5G is already in high demand across both developed and developing markets, despite being newer to the market and less refined than its predecessor.   

Although Telenor Asia Group has customers spanning across Asia’s developed market in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and China; somewhat surprisingly Thailand is the keenest for the transformations that 5G can offer.  

In this episode of Accelerators, we catch up with Seth Ryding, Chief Sales Officer for Global Sales at Telenor Connexion, and Dr Reduan Hasan Khan, Head of B2B Products at dtac. We chat about the smart solutions Telenor Group is trialling with the Thai Government and the potential to transform Thailand’s manufacturing industry through 5G use cases, strengthening its position in the face of rival markets.  

Seth and Reduan discuss how Telenor’s partner ecosystem has developed and diversified along with the growth in technologies it now offers: highlighting the importance of teamwork with both the customer and the partner ecosystem when delivering 5G solutions. 

Stream the episode now to hear more insights on how CSPs can deliver transformative solutions that take their customers further, faster, and beyond.  

“5g is not a solo game - it's about teamwork. It has to be co-creation between the customer who has the problem and the partner of the dtac or Telenor.” - Dr Reduan Hasan Khan. 

When discussing 5G, often the tendency is to focus on innovations that are happening in large tech conglomerates, or governments. But, what if by thinking in this way, we are missing a key market?

According to Vodafone UK, we are. Perhaps unexpectedly, it is the hunger from SMEs and local communities that are driving the demand for 5G solutions at Vodafone UK. And it is this demand, which has led them to build partnerships with several third-party providers, to enhance its ecosystem and subsequently improve its technological offering.

In this episode of Accelerators, we speak to Danny Kelly, Head of Innovation at Vodafone UK, whose role is to ‘stitch’ these partnerships together. We learn more about the ecosystem Vodafone UK has created and how co-creation allows them to respond in a fast and agile manner to their clients' needs.

Stream the episode now to learn more about how Vodafone UK's solutions can help everyone to go further, faster, and beyond.

“We largely expected to see most of the early adoption happen in major MNCs, in that multinational corporate space. And really what we've seen is that the SMEs and the top end of SMEs are super keen to adopt 5G, innovate, try new ways of doing things’’.

For Avneesh Prakash, Vice President of Mobility and MOVE at Tata Communications, there are plenty of reasons to be excited. Over 600 to be precise.

Avneesh is managing one of the world’s largest ecosystems of network partners – over 600 in total. Second, is that this may have just helped him solve one of the most pressing security issues facing IoT.

In our latest episode of Accelerators, we dive deep with Avneesh exploring opportunities, challenges, trends and tech within IoT,. We discuss Tata’s approach towards managing such an extensive partner network, and how they’re using it to encourage co-creation, innovation and ubiquitous connectivity among their clients.

We also hear how this experience of extensive collaborations and ecosystems has lead Avneesh to address IoT security, by embedding security at all layers, starting with the microchip. It’s a compelling proposal, potentially scalable to any level, and suitable for any vertical, any use case.

Avneesh explains more in episode two of Accelerators. He also talks to us about his vision for an ‘anticipatory IoT’ and how this can benefit Industry 4.0. Listen now – and go further, faster and beyond.

 “Our customers want security by design, not as an afterthought. They're looking at zero trust, zero touch security deployments, increasingly software driven so that they become flexible, and scalable.”

Most companies developing IoT initiatives are aware that connectivity doesn’t actually add a great deal to their bottom line. Yet, at the same time, many CSPs are struggling to expand beyond connectivity.

One company is bucking the trend. Telia’s Division X aren’t only exceeding industry averages for IoT connectivity revenue, they’ve also opened up non-connectivity revenue streams that account for an incredible 40% of their income. And if that’s not impressive enough, they’re experiencing a 20% year on year revenue growth.

For our new Accelerators podcast series we meet Division X’s Björn Hansen, Head of IoT, and Kristofer Ågren, Head of Data Analytics, to learn more about the secret of their success. They’re on a mission to explore ‘radical new ways’ of growing  IoT revenue, and it’s fair to say that they’ve done more than succeed. Stream the episode now to find out more.

“The ambition is to have a 10x improvement for the customers. Division X should eventually come up to 10% of the corporate revenue of Telia. And being separate is giving us the opportunity to develop new business models, without being restrained by traditional financial KPIs.”