The Accelerating Innovation in the Telecommunications Arena paper from TelecomTV is the latest in a series of initiatives that try to understand how telco can become successful innovators. As is traditional with these, there are a lot of references to digital services, digital services providers and digital transformation. There is also a candour that this story that has been around for years without any real sign of success. The paper makes a call for more collaboration, more standards, lowering risk; but seems to miss the most important; more willingness to take risk! Telcos actually live in an ultra-low risk environment! Despite a decade of supposed existential threat, I am unaware of any telco truly having ceased to exist. Telcos remain profitable, just not as profitable as they once were. They are slowly losing the value added services to other players and becoming providers primarily of internet access. Covid19 has confirmed that access to the internet remains a fundamental need. This is the most opportune moment for telco in twenty years. Yet, in this period, where the releases of functionality from Zoom have been continuous, I am unaware of any form of innovative product or feature from telco. Risk aversion is in […]