“Network Slicing? Are you having a laugh?” Yes, you can go to the various year-end awards ceremonies and general gladhanding, but if you want to see what Telecom actually thinks about itself, TelecomTV’s annual Great Telco Debate is much more revealing. For sure, there is an intentional end-of-term feel to the event. This is telecom if not quite “at play”, then certainly letting its hair down a little. Free of corporate slideware and PR minders, its unique format of 3-minute perspectives on a given topic means that GTD can get to the heart of things surprisingly quickly. Along the way, it’s pretty free ranging. Yes of course we mentioned the metaverse (but only after 80 minutes – Graham Wilde had a clock running on that – but how many other telecom conferences this year namechecked Douglas Adams, Eddie van Halen, Philip Larkin, Joseph Schumpeter and an orchestra composed entirely of tubas? The “DSP: Are we there yet?” debate might have had a somewhat predictable outcome, but not before some frank admissions from multiple panelists that (a) telcos still have trouble on some basis things – ServiceNow’s Justin Paul just wants a single family bill! – and (b) they are trying […]