Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:07):
We're at MWC 25 in Barcelona. I'm here with Sanjiv Gossain. He is group VP and head of EMEA at Verizon Business. Sanjiv. Great to see you again. Nice to be joining us.

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (00:17):
Nice to be here. Thanks for the invitation.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:19):
Now, one of the big topics always is how can the service providers essentially make more profitable revenue, drive more profitable revenue? Is it possible for telcos to drive profitable growth from the B2B sector? Because goodness, those over the years, the enterprises has always been a focus, but it's sometimes being tough.

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (00:41):
I think it's an interesting point. I think now is a real interesting opportunity because organizations are undergoing digital transformation and through that they're looking for more capability and more performance in their network, in their operations. And that's really where Verizon could really help them is through our managed service capability, providing the best in connectivity, security, and also collaboration for them.

(01:09):
And through that, we can generate profitable revenue by providing all of that through that and our ecosystem of partners. So would you say to call it the telco enterprise services sector, do you feel that this has growth, that it is growing? Yeah, there's naturally pressure on private networks as people move more to internet, but through that there comes a greater demand for workloads and AI and shifting workloads across the cloud. The network pays a big part of that for sure.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (01:39):
Okay. Now obviously the enterprise sector is actually pretty broad and very differentiated. To what extent is it possible for a company like the RISE in business to specifically target the SME sector with differentiated offerings? Or is it even worth it?

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (02:00):
I think for us, our real value for enterprises is our global footprint, our global network and capability. And that really lends itself to global enterprises from an EMEA perspective.

(02:12):
So for that, for them, because you're very much the international sort of side of things. Exactly. So for me, where I'm leading our business in emea, it's really the global enterprises that we're serving because they can benefit from our global footprint and network, which is second to none. And I think that's really the value on top of the managed services we provide for our customers.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (02:32):
Okay. So do you get a sense that enterprises regard telcos as primary partners for digital transformation strategies? Do telcos have everything that enterprises need for these kind of transformations that they're going through?

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (02:47):
I think in the past, probably not, but more recently I believe that organizations and our customers are realizing that the network is foundational to be able to move to a digital world. Whether they're moving workloads from one cloud to another or they want a complete secure environment, the network really is foundational.

(03:08):
So they are really seeing us more as a partner more than ever.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:12):
Okay. Now obviously at the show it's hard to avoid AI as a topic, it's absolutely everywhere, but how is the increasing use of AI impacting Verizon businesses' service developments and the business opportunities it has with enterprise customers?

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (03:30):
So AI is a really important part of our strategy moving forward, both in serving our customers and also embedding it into our products and solutions. So we are able to provide more automation, more AI resolution around tickets, around issues to be able to serve our customers better and to be able to provide the kind of quick turnaround that they want to any challenges and any service requests they may have. So we're increasingly using ai. It's early days, but we're increasingly using it in our service delivery.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:59):
Okay. Now, private 5G is something that's been a big topic in this industry already for about five or six years. Are many enterprises really interested? This is a real growth area or is this only an option for the very largest multinational operator?

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (04:19):
I think it's an opportunity for all organizations because the private 5G capabilities are increasing considerably. There's more devices now which are 5G than there were a couple of years ago. I think looking at the organizations we're talking to in the 5G space around opportunities, the scale has increased, but also the number and diversity of organizations. Previously it was only the very larger organizations, but now we're talking to smaller organizations who want to 5G enabler campus or a factory or a transportation hub who perhaps weren't thinking about it in the past, but now it's less of a early adopter. Now perhaps starting to move shift perhaps more to the early majority. I'd say a little bit.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (05:05):
Okay. Excellent. Certainly in the next two years. Right. Okay. And are there any other emerging 5G related service opportunities that are coming down the pipeline? Because all of the operators need a return on the macro 5G investments they've made.

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (05:22):
I think for us here in emea, it's more about private 5G networks. And for us, we are not talking as much about the technology anymore. Naturally it's secure, low latency, et cetera. But what we are talking about to our customers now is about the use cases. How do I get more connected workers? Can I use 5G to improve worker safety, perhaps in an outdoor environment? Can I use it for autonomous vehicles and robots and things for picking and shipping, et cetera. Those are the kinds of examples that we're really, really talking to customers about, which is what's the impact of it rather than this is a cool technology, let's try and figure out how to use it. Right. And that's a shift.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:05):
And then finally, in terms of iot, which has really been around for a very long time, but is really maturing now, how is that market developing in the B2B sector? What are enterprises looking for these days from IoT?

Sanjiv Gossain, Verizon Business (06:21):
We're finding that with IOT businesses are really looking at how to embed and access devices onto the network, typically in an operations technology environment. And now there are more devices that are becoming 5G enabled as an example. And also it overcomes some of the challenges of wifi. So they're really looking at how do I enable these devices, connect them up to the network, and then start leveraging all the data that I can harvest from that to better understand how I'm operating. Can I do things more efficiently? Can I gain insights that I couldn't get before? So it's really opening up that window of opportunity in the iot space considerably.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:04):
Okay. Excellent. That sounds a great and very relevant development there coming out of iot. So Sanjiv, thanks so much for joining us. Great to get your insights and hope you enjoy the rest of MWC 25. I will. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.