Digital transformation is a challenging but existential undertaking for the telecommunications industry. While most other vertical industries are well into their respective journeys, the world’s mobile network operators are only just getting started. But with initial 5G rollouts mostly complete and the 6G rollout at least a few years away, 2024 opens a valuable window of opportunity for operators to start laying the foundation for the journey from Tel-co to Tech-co.
Over the past three years, that foundation has become abundantly clear: the telco network cloud. This isn’t a new thought, and the promised benefits of much lower network TCO and revenue growth from new service delivery remain as compelling as ever. Nonetheless, progress on network “modernization” has been painfully slow and the reason is equally clear: cloud transformation is a classic people, process and technology “problem.” Technology adoption alone does not lead to digital transformation.