• Telcos have long failed to truly address customers’ needs
• That is starting to change, according to Orange’s Group CTIO, Bruno Zerbib
• This will ultimately lead to business model changes and the end of all-you-can-eat, flat-fee pricing, he believes

LONDON – FutureNet World 2025 – Telcos are finally shifting their attention from the “supply” side to the “demand” side and focusing their efforts on what customers want and need, and not just on what can be delivered, according to Orange Group CTIO Bruno Zerbib. 

The Orange exec posited that theory during the opening panel session on day one of this year’s FutureNet World event as he discussed how the impact of AI and the potential of network APIs is helping, even forcing, traditional telcos to think and act differently. He noted that APIs have existed for many years already, but that the recent development of simpler specifications was giving the telecom sector the opportunity to “change the ecosystem” and evolve the sector’s culture as well as the underlying technology. 

The telco culture “is evolving… finally we are becoming obsessed with the demand side” to identify services that can be monetised. “That is a big change,” he stated, noting that operators are now thinking beyond the legacy applications and considering how APIs can be used to enhance the experience of particular customer types, such as gamers. 

Fellow panellist Gabriela Styf Sjöman, managing director of research and networks strategy at BT Group, agreed that the focus is shifting and that the “gap between supply and demand is closing” but also noted that there is still a lot for telcos to learn about how new API-enabled developments will pan out. “The outcomes of network exposure are not known… the outcomes are value chains” that are complex, she noted.    

As this change of focus develops, so will business models, stated Zerbib. He noted that the big tech firms that charge flat monthly fees for their generative AI (GenAI) services are already discussing how that model is not sustainable in the long term because of the discrepancies in usage (and therefore of GPU resources) of the growing user base, and that models tailored more to the resources consumed will become the norm. 

“The same will change for telcos,” opined Zerbib. “The flat-fee, all-you-can-eat model will fall apart…. Telcos have fixed and variable costs” and ultimately the economics will lead to telcos reverting to different monetisation models that will enable service providers to charge for additional capabilities. 

However, there’s a lot to do before those models can be introduced. “We don’t know how to sell a slice today,” he noted, as it flies in the face of net neutrality rules. Instead, such quality-of-service functionality will need to be integrated with a third-party service, such as a streamed gaming service from a gaming company. 

The big question, of course – and as panel host Mark Newman from the TM Forum noted – is whether the telco sector has the ability to adapt that much and make these changes. 

“There are more questions than answers,” noted Zerbib, “and that’s a bit depressing, but it’s intellectually sound” and will push the industry towards much needed change. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV