Asia Pacific Telecom Summit 2022 – The Innovation Panel

Summary

Telecom leaders across Asia Pacific are rethinking network strategy not as a technology upgrade exercise but as a fundamental shift in mindset, from optimising network KPIs to designing around how customers actually use connectivity. That reframing shaped a conversation between senior technology executives from Axiata and Smart Communications on how operators are lowering costs while still pushing innovation forward.

The practical realities of network transformation took center stage: the resilience demands of adding new services, the disintermediation pressures created by commoditised connectivity, and the total-cost-of-ownership questions still surrounding technologies like Open RAN, which remain promising but not yet delivering the dramatic savings operators hope for. Timing also emerged as a critical theme, with technology investment decisions best made at the natural replacement point in a network's lifecycle rather than adopted reactively.

Talent and skills came up as an equally pressing constraint, with the blurring line between IT and network functions demanding capabilities many telcos still lack, compounded by difficulty attracting graduates who don't see telecom as a first-choice employer. Every theme ultimately tied back to a single throughline: customer experience remains the ultimate driver behind every network transformation decision telcos make.

• Open RAN's total-cost-of-ownership challenges and current limitations
• Timing technology adoption to network investment cycles
• Talent and skills gaps as networks and IT converge