Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:05):
We are in Copenhagen for DTW 24 Ignite. That's the annual TM Forum event. I'm here with Amol Phadke, he's the group CTO at Telenor. Amol, thanks very much for joining us today and your very busy schedule. Really appreciate it.

Amol Phadke, Telenor (00:19):
Thank you, Ray. Thank you for having me.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:21):
So here during the show on the first day of the show, you made a pretty big announcement with AWS about the sovereign cloud strategy that Telenor has. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Amol Phadke, Telenor (00:33):
Yeah, absolutely. So yesterday marked really a big change for us because as you remember a few months ago I had talked about becoming an AI first telco as tel, and of course, cloud and AI are two sides of the same coin. So we also wanted to take a very disruptive position when it comes to cloud first. And so that announcement yesterday with our partner AWS is really about moving towards a cloud first telco. And if I can elaborate on that a little bit, there's really two dimensions to that. One is around building a sovereign cloud solution. And this is where of course, as I talked about in the announcement yesterday, we are going to invest with AWS in our C Guard data center that we are currently rolling out. And as part of that, we will be in a position where we can create a set of infrastructures that are designed for the sovereign cloud market in the Nordics.

(01:23):
Now, why do we think we can do that? Well, there are three things. One, we are by definition building the cleanest greenest data center right in the middle of Norwalk. That itself is quite a big achievement. Second, that data center is sovereign by definition. We are a state-owned enterprise, and so is a joint venture on the data center side, which means together with us and the joint venture, we are very good in terms of understanding the sovereign needs and operating on those sovereign needs. And then thirdly, this data center really becomes a co-creation facility where a lot of partners will come and innovate. And that's a key point. So the announcement with a WS is also very significant for us, but so was what we did with N Media a few months ago because we are going to need a basket of partners that can do this with us for sovereign club.

(02:11):
And then the second part of the announcement is really more focused on us as Telenor looking at our own needs and looking at how we transform our own organization so that we sort of are in a position where we can say to the external market, look, we are doing this with ourselves as well, and then we are looking at you as well. And so that's why the Sweden and the Finland part comes in because we are going to partner with AWS there to radically transform how we look at our IT and our infrastructure and take their help in terms of moving towards a cloud driven infrastructure.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (02:40):
So that expansion of this strategy into Sweden and Finland, is that the exact same model or slightly different?

Amol Phadke, Telenor (02:49):
It is not the same model as such, but basically what we are trying to do is to say, look, we are a large multi-country operator and therefore each market has a slightly different and a slightly different way of handling the transformation journey. And so AWS is really a strong partner with us in these two markets where we can drive this. Now would that be exactly the same in all of our markets? We are still analyzing that, but the point is we are going to work with the ecosystem to give us whatever is needed for our customer needs.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:18):
Now there's a lot of talk at this event and all industry events through the telecom sector about the importance of finding new business opportunities, new revenue streams. Is this an example of that, A way of kind of going beyond the normal telco boundaries and finding something new, but something that's right in your wheelhouse?

Amol Phadke, Telenor (03:39):
That's exactly right. Because a lot of what you hear in this event is about growth opportunities. And you can go after pretty much anything you want, but at the end of the day, if it's near to what you do as your core and it's adjacent to your core, you have a higher chance of success. So for instance, the sovereign cloud is about, we feel quite strong that we are a very strong player in this particular market segment. And so it makes sense to partner with cloud players in this and really jointly try and address that need. But that doesn't mean I'm going to start looking at cloud services for everything because then that would be not close to our core competence. And the same thing goes with ai. You have heard a lot about AI in this event, about the promise of the opportunities and the growth, but you have to be very targeted and focused on what this particular industry can do as opposed to everything else that AI can offer.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (04:30):
So you're really picking your battles, finding out what works for you and what can work with Telenor as a business and for your customers. So Telenor is definitely moving things along, but there's a sense here of people I've spoken to at this event that while there's a lot of talk about the need for change and so on so forth, that there's still a lot of inertia and not enough change in this industry. Do you think that's fair?

Amol Phadke, Telenor (04:56):
I think that's fair. And the reason for that is two things. One, at the TM Forum event here, we also discussed as a TM forum board how we can create a catalyst for change. Because yes, AI is a great technology and yes, there's a lot of other things happening around cloud, but ultimately it requires the telcos to do different things. So you probably have seen yesterday the TM Forum also looked at the three new missions that we have as a board. And of course the compostable IT systems is something that the TM forum has a leadership for many years. But the other two motions around looking at AI and then looking at autonomous network, is there an attempt for the operator community to say, let us wake up and do something in these two forums as a way to get out of that inertia? Because otherwise what happens is you sort of sit back as you say, and you let these technologies come to you, and then either somebody else takes it or you're too slow, and then we know what happens. So it's really our view as a TM forum to look at these two mission boards, for example, and say, is that going to be a catalyst for change? That will wake us up as an industry from the ownership.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:04):
Okay, well, I mean, let's hope so. That's what we can say, but it's up to the industry to do that itself. It can only help itself. So this event is only three days in total. We're in the second day now. But I'm sure you've spoken to a lot of people, you've had a lot of meetings. Are there any other trends or developments that have stuck in your mind as something that's either new or innovative or exciting

Amol Phadke, Telenor (06:30):
At first? There's a lot of AI innovations I've seen here. This is by definition something that you would expect. I have seen an innovation where people are talking about using AI inside laptop computers. So instead of having a film on top or glasses on top, you just look at the camera and you get to see 3D, and then when you step away from it, it's 2D. And this kind of things is something that is really only powered by ai. So there's a lot of innovations there. But I also get a sense for the first time, there's a lot of humility at this event because people are starting to realize that two years ago we also talked about 5G monetization quite a bit. Where is that? And I think people are starting to understand now in the industry as a whole that, okay, perhaps we have to be more concrete. Perhaps we have to be more grounded, and maybe we have to be a bit more pragmatic. And really we have to start looking at innovation as a step by step approach as opposed to really looking at a big bank thing saying, 5G will change the world, or AI will change the world. Looking at really a benefits view of it. I think that's something that I have picked up here in the last couple of weeks, which is refreshing to see.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:35):
Right. Well, let's hope that combination of humility and catalyst for innovation can help to change things. So next year, I can ask you perhaps a little bit more of a positive question. Yes. And great speak to you as ever. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to telecom tv.

Amol Phadke, Telenor (07:52):
Thank you so much for having me today. Thank you.