Could Facebook’s investment in Jio kickstart an M&A trend?

• DSP Leaders World Forum session on Geopolitics highlights major global trends
• Facebook’s investment in India’s Jio Platforms a “remarkable development”
• Covid-19 has accelerated digital platform strategies at telcos 
• US/China spat involving Huawei could upset global trade patterns

The growing influence of the webscale giants on telecoms, how the US/China trade spat will have repercussions on the communications networking sector, and the impact of Covid-19 on digital transformation strategies and the telecoms industry’s productivity were just some of the key topics discussed during the DSP Leaders World Forum 2020 panel discussion Geopolitics and the New Economic Models for DSPs.

Commenting on Facebook’s investment in India’s Jio Platforms, which in turn owns the giant, disruptive mobile operator Reliance Jio, Mike Conradi, Partner at law firm DLA Piper, noted this was a “remarkable” development: “The Internet companies have consciously, I think, refrained from getting involved in licenced telecoms businesses, with very few exceptions like fibre companies in a few cities in the US. So, that is a remarkable development, I think, and I think we may well see a convergence between internet companies and network operators… I think we can predict that even more interesting times ahead,” noted the legal expert. 

Also during the panel discussion session, Duarte Begonha, a Partner at management consulting giant McKinsey highlighted the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on CSP digital transformation strategies, while Nik Willetts, CEO at industry association TM Forum, also highlighted digital strategies and discussed how productivity in the telecoms sector has held up.

And, of course, the thorny topic of the US/China trade spat and the inclusion of Huawei in that confrontation was also a topic of conversation, which also included Jean-Pierre Bienaimé, Chairman at the Institute of Economic & Social Research on Telecommunications (IREST).

Check out the full discussion here.

Geopolitics and economic models will also be discussed during our upcoming Extra Shot programs, which will look back at the highlights of the online DSP Leaders event, include the views of special guests, and take a serious look at how coffee and cocktails can help us all through the ongoing lockdown. Look out on TelecomTV for further details of the upcoming Extra Shot programs. 

• Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV