magazine - Connect-World

Telco evolution
Content talks - but what’s the message
by George Nikoloudis, COO, OTEGLOBE
Although most of their market will still come from data and voice services, the telecom
industry needs to reinvent itself in the next ten years. The rise of non-traditional services,
explosive Internet demand, shifts in customer behaviour, an always connected digital world
and innovations brought by OTT will force today’s telcos to choose between traditional
revenue streams or look to higher growth services at a higher risk. Telcos need to climb the
value chain of applications, content and media to grow.
George Nikoloudis is OTEGLOBE’s Chief Operating Officer; he was previously OTEGLOBE’s Director of Voice Sales Services. Prior
to OTEGLOBE, Mr Nikoloudis held a number of high-level positions at MCI Inc, later acquired by Verizon Business. As a Country
Manager, Mr. Nikoloudis was responsible for the launch and operation of the regional office in Athens, which covered the markets of
Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and FYROM.
George Nikoloudis holds a University Degree in Electrical Engineering from the UNSW University of Sydney and a specialization
in Informatics.
Content booms in a connected world
Remember when the Internet was known as
the “information super highway” Back in
these days, users connected to the Internet
primarily through dial-up networking to
look for information and email messages and
then disconnect once their job was complete,
freeing the phone line for traditional phone
calls. Nowadays things are a little bit different
but the context is the same: Spread the
knowledge around the world and stay tuned in
a global village called the World Wide Web.
Today, the Internet isn’t just a side activity,
it’s the main dish. It is a social medium
where people are engaged. We shop online,
do business online, we play games online,
we read the news online, we listen to music
on line, we watch TV and movies online,
we connect on-line with social media, it’s
a never-ending list. Our kids expect to find
nearly all types of content available online
and on all kind of different devices. Mobile
devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as
well as connected internet TV are likewise
becoming the most popular and enjoyable
medium for entertainment services.
And what have we done as an industry to feed
this content hungry, always connected Homo
Sapiens We built high-speed, broadband
connections to replace the old dial-up lines,
we run thousand of kilometers of optical
fibres around the globe, added mobility
and layer-upon-layer of complexity on our
network infrastructure to make sure that our
services would always be there when people
needed them.
Oh, and by the way, somewhere along the line
we made money, we increased our revenues
and the size of our business, we transformed
ourselves from simple voice carriers to fixed,
mobile, internet, etc. service providers.
So since our industry, the telecom industry, has
benefited so much by this content boom during
these last 30 years why’s everyone complaining
Stop shouting! Listen to what the content has
to say…..
When it comes to our industry today’s
customers have one thing in common: they
are ignorant about the players in the content
delivery chain. They don’t know - and
couldn’t care less - who owns the content
when they watch a movie on their iPad or
who is responsible for their call when they
use Skype.
People in our industry say that this rapidly
changing customer behaviour is reshaping the
competitive landscape of Traditional Telecom
Operators. Why
Because on the one hand new entrants, also
known as ‘over-the-top’ or OTT players
20 • EMEA 2013