Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:17):
Hi, it's probably no need to mention but I'm Tony Poulos and I'm here at the DSP Leaders World Forum and it's wrap up time. We've reached the end of two fabulous days and many, many sessions and lots and lots of extra shots. And this is the last one I have with me, the two hot shots, or shall I say, big shots of the event, Ray Le Maistre and Guy Daniels. I'm going to quiz you two now on exactly what was the highlight for each of you. I'm going to start with you, Ray. I know you've probably got a list as long as my arm, but if you could keep it down to a few points.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:51):
I've got a few points on my carefully branded car here, Tony. I knew it. The highlights, the highlights for me and I think for many people that were here as well and who gave us feedback. The enterprise sessions that we had focused on specific vertical markets, those were big highlights and gave us a different perspective and one that was really appreciated by everybody here, even when the people there were saying the telecom sector is not delivering what we need and not doing enough because that's why everybody needs to hear if it's right so they can go away and think about how to fix it. And I think also the other sort of, I think positive from me from a lot of the sessions here was a greater focus on what the customer needs and how the industry can do better in thinking about the customers and working from that position backwards. It's often been talked about, but I think over so many years and so many telecom industry conferences, we tend to talk about the technology and what technology is coming next and not so much the customers. And there was a lot more of that this year and I think the whole event was better for it as well. Guy. Hi

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:11):
For me. Well obviously appearing for the very first time on Extra Shot with Tony Poulos as being just career, career dream, hasn't it?

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:19):
I'm not sure the viewers thought that, but nevertheless.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:22):
But other than that, I've got to echo what Ray said. It was the market perspectives sessions where we looked at specific verticals and based on feedback, it's just something we're going to a lot more of next year. In fact, I had a conversation with one of the delegates a few seconds ago. He just left for the airport and he said, look, there's is massive disconnect between what telcos think and what they're selling now and what they need to be ready for with their vertical market customers in the next few years. And this is something that is just going to blow up really.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:52):
Yeah, the point, the thing that I love the session, but I love the automotive session a lot and I thought the guy from Jaguar Land Rover telling us about case studies and how connectivity was critical for that sector to move forward. It was all about connectivity to me. We think we've got connectivity, but we don't have ubiquitous connectivity. 5G has failed to deliver, we're still not there with 5G. And Neil McRae raised the point at the very end about starlink. There are operators, there are network operators around the world now telcos that are linking with starlink to provide that last connectivity that they can't provide themselves to handsets. They could be a big threat that could take over a lot of the telco market. Is that possible?

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:34):
Well, is it a threat or is it just, I mean it's just an extension. I mean starlink effectively is a broadband service provider. It's a satellite based ISP. So it is just another company that's come into this. Now would any of the traditional telcos have had the resources, imagination and also have your own rocket launching company to be able to do that? No. So this is where starlink comes into play and is obviously as we've heard, and as you know Tony, it's providing a really good service and this is why we're seeing a lot of hookups, not just for the broadband connectivity that can be provided, but also in terms of this satellite to smartphone or direct to sell services, which are being talked about now. But so many things, it's really exciting. It's a new service, but will the industry actually make any money out of it? Do the customers want it and do enough customers want it? And I think that conversation, I'm not sure that conversation has happened yet about that particular segment of the market, but new companies come in, bring new capabilities that may be traditional operators or service providers have been able to deliver. And that's good. It really gives the industry a kick up the backside.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:59):
And I think whether customers want it or not, it's very good point, but we're already seeing these, these satellite providers lobbying, putting in their ideas into 3GPP, 6G studies and they don't just want that integration.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:13):
They'll be in the standards talks.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (05:14):
No, they want full integration. Absolutely. They want to see even like a 6G ran, that's TN plus NTN. Now whether that's going to happen, hard to say, but it's heading that way.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:25):
Yeah, I thought those were the key points for me, but I'm not sure that the telcos know what their customers want and I'm not sure, well, that came up all the time you mentioned a minute ago, but I don't think the customers know what they want. They seem to be very happy now with their handset. They're getting 4K videos on their handsets. They do everything. Their whole life revolves around the handset. I don't think they know. They can't go to an operator now and say, I really want more speed or I want more bandwidth. They've got it. What do the customers want from telcos? Maybe we've reached Zenith for a while.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (05:58):
Well, no, I think there's a lot more to be delivered and I think we're seeing examples of this around the world and I think it's about bringing different services to customers through one device or through one bundle service. And I think that's something that doesn't happen an awful lot. And I think there's something to be said for the approach that's been taken by Rakuten in Japan. They came at it from a different perspective where they had a broad range of digital services and then decided to build a communications network as an extra element to that to be able to add that to the portfolio they had. Now, is there an opportunity for companies that have a mobile network to expand their range of digital services and deliver what customers need, which is they want reliable services, the services they want and need every day through a single device.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:58):
But also with things like loyalty schemes, we all know these through the supermarkets and we all use them. Oh, I'll go with that one because they're giving me some money off because I'm a member of the loyalty scheme. Why can't that happen in the communications sector? Because are there instances of this if there are, are not many and we don't hear a lot about them? So I think models are not necessarily new, but there are ways in which this industry can expand and do better for the customers because at the end of the day, as customers, if we had one device and we could get everything and manage everything through a single app or a single device, I think we'd all want that. But it's difficult to do. I think that would be something that we'd all want to use. Surely.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (07:43):
Has he left anything for you to say?

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (07:46):
No.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (07:48):
You know what? We have learned something else as if we didn't know already. He's more interested in the discounts he's going to get from the supermarket than he's from the connectivity. Well, I don't know what else to say after that Guy. What do you think? Should we call it a wrap?

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (08:00):
Well reckon we should go to the pub.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (08:01):
What a great idea. So for all of you out there in well worldwide, hopefully watching the last extra shot, we're off and we'll see you again next year. Thank you both and thank you out there.