Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:07):
So we're in Barcelona. It's MWC 25. I'm here with Lasha Tabidze, Chief Digital Operations Officer at VEON, Lasha. Great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. Taking time out of your busy schedule for TelecomTV. Can you tell us about your role at VEON? What are your responsibilities?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (00:29):
Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me here and great to have a chat around what's happening around, not only in MWC but the industry. So I'm Chief Digital Operations Officer, so obviously my key goal is to harmonize digital strategy, business strategy and back up with the modern technology. My focus is on leveraging on AI and also data centric solutions to create meaningful products for the customers. By this I mean that the products which customer are ready to use, ready to engage to help them become better and make their lives better. So that's my primary goal as a Chief Digital Operations officer at VEON.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (01:16):
Okay. How important is the digital services portfolio to the VEON Group in terms of that customer engagement and retention and from a revenue generation perspective as well, because obviously you mentioned the business angle as well, and that's very important.

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (01:32):
Absolutely. At VEON, we name our strategy digital operator 14 and 40. 14 and 40 stands for the number of minutes per day. So we are digital operator strategy 14 and 40,

(01:48):
Meaning our goal is to be meaningful and to be with our customers with our services every single minute a day. And this is at the core of the overall strategy because the more meaningful services you create and deliver to the markets, to the communities and to the customers, more engaged they are. And in practical words, we see higher revenues, more engagement, less churn, notably about the numbers in Q3, 2024, direct digital revenues. And by this I don't mean revenues coming from higher data usage or lower churn. These are pure direct digital revenues coming from our digital applications, services and platforms reached $121 million, which is 12% of the group top line. So we have now, and we serve with our applications more than a hundred million people and one third of them are not even our sim card users. We create the services in the verticals like financial, healthcare, entertainment, and dedication services, which are useful, which customers love and use in the countries and communities we serve.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:04):
Okay, interesting. So that model sounds like something that's slowly becoming more popular in the operator communities. They realize they need to branch out from just being the connectivity providers. Are you seeing others adopt this kind of model as well or be interested in what Von is doing?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (03:23):
We absolutely see this and that's why like MWC and discussion with the peers, with partners, it's about thinking how we all should act in the future. Of course, we were the first goers pioneers and we see the results and we are ready to teach others to share our experience. But at the end of the day, the key is what matters. It's our customers and we have to step out of selling just gigabytes minutes and SMS, we have to create products and the services which customers value.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:57):
Okay. So how is VEON set up in terms of its digital services development and provision? Have you got a sort of group wide telco cloud strategy, and if so, how does that sort of fuse or connect with what you're doing in some of your network infrastructure developments? Like for example, open ran in Ukraine?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (04:23):
It's a very interesting question. So we as a group, we're uniquely positioned, we're aligned when it's come to the strategy, the vision where we should go. But we are completely decentralized when it comes to the execution

(04:39):
Because we are tailoring all the products, ization, cloud infrastructure development or network development based on the market and customer needs. Of course, taking into account local laws, local regulations and all the things. For example, in Pakistan we have a very good cloud platform named Garage, and we serve the local enterprises and B2B and B two G where data stays in the country. In Ukraine and Oran as an example, we look into network to rebuild the network on the Oran technology. And we are partnering and exploring, for example, together with Rakuten. And at the same time we have deep partnership with Microsoft and AWS in terms of cloud business and enterprise solutions. So we're acting as an international player who really cares about local nuances and going into the multi-cloud solutions or local solutions, which we establish ourselves. But the main goal, as I've said, is the customer. What is the need of the customer and what are the specifics of the market we operate in?

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (05:53):
Okay. Now, one of the big topics in last couple of years, and again this year at MWC is the network API strategies that the GSMA has been very active in and that a lot of the operators are now starting to embrace they on have a network, API strategy.

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (06:16):
Absolutely. And from day one, we're a big supporter and we're part of the open gateway activity. And why? Because as I said, VEON is committed to create meaningful services, meaningful digital applications for the communities. And this is possible and even possible to accelerate through the framework like GSMA open gateway where you have the universal network, API on top of which developers can develop the products and what is most important seamlessly integrate into the telecom networks of the world.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:51):
Yeah, okay. Now there's a lot of companies are talking about how that network API strategy sort of interacts and is part of their overall AI strategy. And of course, as we can see here at MDC, you can't go two yards without seeing some kind of AI messaging or marketing, but this is a real, the upswing in the use of AI applications is a real big deal for network operators in many different levels. So how has the recent surge in AI engagement impacting your service development strategy and what is it that customers are demanding from VEON?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (07:34):
That's a great question. And as you mentioned, everything is about AI because we all understand, and it's not just about the MNOs or telecoms, it's about the world changing with the power of ai. In the telecom case, in our case, ai, we see as a multipli cater and biggest AI to really deal with the challenges and complexities which are coming to the network in terms of usage of new AI applications, overall usage streaming and what's happening around. But for VEON, if we define AI into three verticals here, efficiency, experience, and growth, we look at AI as a value creator to bring growth to the customers, to give them possibility to have the augmented intelligence, which supports them to become better versions of themselves, strive, whether it's digital economy, whether it's regular economy, or in their daily lives. That's how we look at the ai. That's why we always say and state that our strategy, what I mentioned about due 1440, now we have AI 1440 strategy, augmented intelligence, every single minute. Today, it's a logical continuation of the strategy because it helps the customers and of course it helps to be more efficient, it helps to have them more and more digital experience in the applications. And at the end of the day, it helps to really accelerate digital inclusion to get more and more people on board of digital transformation.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (09:15):
Okay. And are you finding that across the VEON group that customers are in a way demanding or communicating that they want more of this, they want gen ai, their enterprises want to find out from VEON how AI can help them grow their businesses and operate better? Is this something that's coming to you as a request from the customer base?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (09:40):
Absolutely. As in our DNA, to be really customer centric, we always listen to the customers. What we discussed from the start, the adjacent verticals, we started to develop financial services, education, entertainment, healthcare, and some more. This came from the underserved or not served communities, which needed our support in these digital verticals and bringing these products and these goods to the communities

(10:08):
Now about ai, AI should speak the language which the community speaks. So our goal and our main mission, and that's what we do, is to invest in local language models. One of them, which is present here on MWC and has lots of attraction, is kaza K, which we developed together with the Kazakhstani government entities, GSMA, Foundry, Barcelona, supercomputing Center, because it's another big challenge like whether AI will be expanding the divide or AI will be equalizer, that everyone has access through their language into the high level of education, greater financial services, greater healthcare. And at the end of the day, by this, we are creating better digital economies, growing the economies. And of course, this is good for the business which operates in these economies. So investing and focusing on local LLMs agentic approach and the augmenting intelligence in the local languages helps us to help people we serve.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (11:16):
Okay, excellent. And then finally, at MWC, obviously we see the big booths and the presentations here from a lot of the operators, but obviously a lot of the floor here is taken up by the vendor, community, developer community that are trying to pitch to people like you. Essentially, what do you need from that side of the industry to help you deliver to your strategic goals? And what can the vendor and developer community do more to help you?

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (11:50):
That's a very good question, and that's a question for 1 million, what we discussed together with all the partners or future partners, because we need more and more collaboration and we need more deeper partnerships because in today's world, we shouldn't see the development of the infrastructure only from the speed waves, I mean by this only from the next level of network and next level of technologies. We all look at this and discuss from the AI angle how we can develop the applications for the network, for the customers, for the platforms, for the digital applications, how we can do it together. And it needs to stand together to advocate for supportive legislations, to look into harmonized approach that at the end of the day, all us together are on one side and create products which make world and people better.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (12:49):
So a commitment to collaboration and partnerships, that's what you're looking for primarily. Absolutely. And build from

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (12:55):
There. Absolutely. And this is crucial that this way we can really commit all of us, vendor community, telecom, community, big tech, tech, community, developers, we all commit that we all care. And we all think about what matters. And what matters is the customers, the end users who will use this product to try to make communities, countries, and world better.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (13:23):
Okay. Well, I think we have seen evidence of more of this kind of collaboration in recent years, and I think now we're starting to see the fruits of that as well in the industry. So yeah, more can only be good. Lasha, thanks so much for joining us today. Great to talk to you and have a great rest of MWC 25.

Lasha Tabidze, VEON (13:44):
My pleasure. Thank you very much.