What role do telecom operators want to play in cloud computing

In a future full of cloud computing, what are the world's leading telecoms operators hoping to play in the future?

At the very least, they don't want to be "dumb plumbing" suppliers, and the CEOs from Deutsche Telekom, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco shared their views in the MWC 2012 keynote address of 28th. Rung and Cisco also said they did not want operators to become "dumb plumbing" suppliers, for the simple reason that "dumb pipes" make little money.

Intelligence is the way out in the future

So how do telecoms giants define intelligence, and the CEOs of the three telecoms companies believe that intelligentization means developing business at the level of the carrier cloud (carrier Cloud).

In other words, in addition to providing basic broadband and wireless connectivity to consumers, large telecoms companies want to provide services such as home security monitoring, telemedicine, smart grids and energy monitoring. The use of cloud-based infrastructure will enable operators to share computing power and provide these services in a cost-effective manner.

"Cloud computing provides an opportunity for operators to deliver innovative business to consumers at an unprecedented rate," said Chambers, Cisco CEO John Chambers. ”

In strict terms, says Chambers, operators no longer benefit from a generational shift in the evolution of the next generation of technology. For example, when wireless carriers move from 2G to 3G, they see a larger return on investment, which is now not the case when migrating from 3G to 4G.

"The way operators will benefit in the future is to provide new services and develop services that allow consumers to pay more," Chambers said. ”

Cloud Computing offers transformational opportunities

Cloud computing has been in the industry for many years, now consumers have begun to use cloud-based services, such as storage music, pictures and so on, but the future cloud will provide more services. Some companies like Google also want to do well in cloud computing, but telecoms operators and their suppliers argue that operators have an innate advantage in providing cloud services, and one of the main reasons is that they already have the infrastructure they need to provide cloud services.

"We certainly don't want to be dumb plumbing suppliers, and maybe we can't control the entire network, but we have end-to-end quality of service," said Rene Obermann, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, Leniob Burman. ”

Many telecoms operators are already shifting in this direction, with broadband service providers such as Comcast and Verizon providing home security systems and remote energy management services in the United States. at& T also released its own platform last week to enable service providers to launch cloud services on this platform.

Obermann said that Deutsche Telekom is also in this direction, the company has shifted from the technology behind the focus on services to focus on customer service, Deutsche Telecom has invested a lot of resources to protect existing revenue, rather than using a variety of access technology to better serve consumers.

He refers to operators using unauthorized WiFi to help ease traffic congestion, rather than ensuring that consumers use an authorized 2G or 3G network, as in the past, so that operators can charge for every minute of each megabyte users use. Obermann said Deutsche Telekom has also redesigned its services and billing programs to make consumers look more straightforward.

He said: "We have never really been user centered, but over the years, this situation has changed radically, there is a long way to go, we have to make users feel that everything is easy." ”

Obermann said it was important for operators to focus on offering innovative products and services to consumers, not long ago, when operators were quietly waiting for other people in the industry to innovate.

Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent's chief executive, Verwaayen to Obermann's point of view, saying that suppliers such as rung who develop products and the days when operators do not invest are history. Now both sides must cooperate wholeheartedly, the equipment business can help the operator to realize the development innovation business goal.

Obermann agrees: "The mindset of a typical telecoms operator is not innovation. "He said this must change, and this is precisely Obermann in addition to the CEO position, assume the other role of Deutsche Telekom, Obermann personally promote the company's product innovation work, he wants to see the future for Deutsche Telecom half of the business is not now, Obermann think Cloud is an opportunity."

Urging the government to loosen regulation

But developing new services also means investing heavily in infrastructure, not only to be faster and more ubiquitous, but also to ensure security. Obermann and Verwaayen both believe that this time government regulation should step back and give the industry more leeway so that they can provide their own solutions.

Obermann complains that many OTT content and service providers, which offer streaming audio and video services on operators ' networks, have made huge profits, while telecoms operators have paid tens of billions of dollars to build and optimize their networks.

Deutsche Telekom and other operators, he says, need to manage their networks and ensure that they provide services to their users. Regulators in many countries require infrastructure operators to allow traffic to flow freely on the Internet without any control, and regulators do not allow operators to limit the flow of potential rivals.

Obermann is not the first to complain, two years ago, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Telefónica and other large European telecom operators repeatedly called on the EU to change the original Internet settlement rules, European telecom operators in the fixed line and mobile infrastructure investment of billions of of dollars, In order to improve bandwidth download speed and network capabilities. The OTT company, led by Google YouTube, paid only a small fee for its use of bandwidth, making it a big profit for its telecoms operators to become "dumb pipes" suppliers.

Obermann said that in the provision of cloud services, the network to do its best to allow the flow of free circulation, capacity is not enough. He says wireless networks are now struggling to cope with capacity pressures and need more management. Verwaayen agrees, Obermann cautiously, that he simply prefers to stand on a non-discriminatory perspective to manage the network.

He said: "The market must be developed in this way, to provide consumers with different choices of quality, do not do so, the industry can not continue to move forward, I fly from here to Madrid there are a variety of options, no one to pay me to buy first-class class has any criticism, why can not our operators to provide this option to consumers ”

(Responsible editor: Duqing first)