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Ep 43 – Telco’s Pinball Wizard: Neil McRae
BT Chief Architect Neil McRae talks about the company's digital transformation and strategies for working with hyperscalers … and pinball, of course!
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Ep 20 – The paradox of the public cloud
WE. DID. IT. As this podcast is hitting the feed, we’re about to take a victory lap after an eye-popping, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing Mobile World Congress 2021 (MWC21). Most of you know that in early March, I took over Ericsson’s 6,000 square meter booth at the event and created CLOUD CITY – a huge hub for all things public cloud. (If this is news to you, go check out episode 16, #SaveMWC). CLOUD CITY was an outta-the-park home run. In less than three months, we designed and delivered an unforgettable experience for both in-person and virtual attendees.
MWC asked me to deliver a keynote during the show, which I’ve turned into this podcast episode. The topic is the paradox of the public cloud for the telecom industry – the cloud presents massive opportunities for telcos, but it’s not completely risk-free. But it’s coming to telco, and telco leaders need to deal with it. Burying your head in the sand is NOT an option.
A few things you’ll find in this episode:
- I call myself the Elon Musk of telco and compare myself to Steve Jobs in the keynote, but hey, I’m not known for my modesty [2:30];
- How and why the telecom industry is poised to be the big winner in our post-pandemic workworld [6:22];
- What Rakuten, Vodafone, and DISH understand about the public cloud that most don’t [8:57];
- Why telco industry software needs to be completely rewritten for the public cloud [11:43];
- How the chore of collecting identity information is really the foundation for a HUGE strategic advantage [12:55]; and
- Why it’s time to start riding dragons.
Here’s the bottom line: the public cloud is coming to telco. It’s time to go ALL IN, use the public cloud the right way, and revitalize your telco. Let’s do it.
Links and Resources
- You can find the transcript for this episode here.
- Watch my keynote on CLOUD CITY ON-DEMAND
- Check out my DSP Leaders World Forum talk about webscale applications and Totogi
- In early June, I took part in Mobile World Live Themed Week and talked about how telcos can double their ARPU by turning network interactions into customer love. Watch the session and live Q&A
- Visit the Totogi website – it officially launched at MWC21!
- Read about DISH plans to build a 5G network on AWS and have US cities live before the end of the year
- Check out Vodafone’s announcement that it’s building one of the world’s largest Open RAN networks
- Learn more about how Vodafone shifted its analytics practice to GCP in this case study on my website
- Read about MWC21 highlights on the MWC Barcelona website
- You didn’t think I’d forget dragons, did you? Here’s my favorite dragon moment from Game of Thrones.
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The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Gold Hermes Award and was recognized on Forrester’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Channel Podcasts and Feedspot’s Top 10 Telecom Podcasts list.
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Podcast Credits
- Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios Royston, TelcoDR
- Executive Producer: Kristin Donelson, OneLouder Marketing
- Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
- Editor/Producer: Alisa Jenkins Wilson, Springboard Marketing
- Audio Editing: Andrew Condell
- Music: Dyami Wilson
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the “paradox” of the public cloud for telcos?
The public cloud presents both massive opportunity and real risk for telecom—but the upside far outweighs the downside. Telcos that lean in can dramatically reduce costs, build better subscriber relationships, and unlock new revenue streams. Those that ignore it risk being outplayed by cloud-native players like DISH, which is building its entire 5G network on AWS. Doing nothing, as DR puts it, is not a neutral choice.
2. What does DR say telcos need to do to win in the post-pandemic world?
DR argues that telcos are uniquely positioned to win as work shifts away from physical offices and into cloud-based environments. Workers need serious bandwidth at home for video, large file transfers, and AR/VR—and that demand shifts investment from commercial real estate into broadband. Telcos that embrace the public cloud can capture a share of what DR estimates to be a $10 trillion shift in infrastructure spend. You can watch her full MWC21 keynote on-demand.
3. Why does telecom software need to be completely rewritten for the public cloud?
Legacy telecom software was built for on-premise infrastructure and carries enormous cost and complexity. When software is purpose-built for the public cloud, the total cost of ownership (TCO) can drop by as much as 80%. It also eliminates capacity planning, disaster recovery burdens, and slow feature cycles. Most importantly, it frees telco teams to focus on what actually differentiates them: their relationship with their subscribers.
4. How can telcos turn digital identity into a competitive advantage?
Every telco already collects identity data to issue a SIM—but most treat it as a compliance cost. DR urges telcos to flip that mindset: this data presents an opportunity to understand the subscriber’s digital identity, the same opportunity Apple is pursuing. Paired with network interaction data, this digital identity can become the foundation for a super app, and a path to reclaiming customer experience from OTT players.
5. What can telcos learn from DISH, Rakuten, and Vodafone’s approach to the public cloud?
These operators aren’t waiting. Rakuten’s Open RAN deployment runs at 50% less CapEx and 40% less OpEx. Vodafone is building one of the world’s largest Open RAN networks. And DISH is deploying its 5G network on AWS, giving it a cost structure and enterprise application stack that legacy telcos simply can’t match. The lesson: cloud-native competitors are already live, and the window to act is now.
6. How does Totogi fit into DR’s vision for a cloud-native telco future?
Totogi launched at MWC21 as a direct embodiment of DR’s thesis—software purpose-built for the public cloud that enables telcos to become customer-centric rather than network-centric. The goal is to help operators double their ARPU by turning network interactions into customer loyalty, rather than simply monetizing pipes. Visit the Totogi website and book a demo to learn more about what a cloud-native BSS stack makes possible.