On Day 2 we ran 3 streams in parallel. This weblog reviews work stream 5 “Telcos Making a Difference Part 2”. Telcos get a hard time in not responding to change, well that’s not entirely true. Within telcos there are many innovators. Its hard to get those innovations out in the field, but in this session we review some who are making a difference in their organizations. Presenting were: KS Lau, CTO & VP Technology, Multi-Byte Info Technology Ltd.; Antonio Cruz, Software Architect & Project Manager, SAPO (Portugal Telecom); Daniel Sendin, COO, NAKA Mobile; Fernando Mendioroz, Innovation Manager, Digicel Group; Martina Saric, Service Enablers, T-Mobile Austria.

We kicked off workstream 5 with an innovative MVNO, KS Lau, CTO & VP Technology, Multi-Byte Info Technology Ltd presented on “The Open Source Telco.” Multi-Byte is a full MVNO operating across Asia. KS will quantify how they use and benefit from open source in their network.

Next Antonio Cruz, Software Architect & Project Manager, SAPO (Portugal Telecom) presented on “Taking Control of Your Future: Own Your Service Platforms.” Quantifying the business success achieved with SAPO’s Service Delivery Broker. Explaining the importance of owning the platform to control your future.

Daniel Sendin, COO, NAKA Mobile presented on “Financial Services: The next Mobile challenge.” MVNOs showed the industry that new services and revenue streams could be possible. Convergence of services is a reality that operators are bringing to the market. Naka developed a convergence platform of Mobile services and now also Financial Services. The noi [BOX] service allows a customer to benefit of having multiple mobile identities with Remittance and peer2peer digital cash transactions.

Fernando Mendioroz, Innovation Manager, Digicel Group presented on “Service Innovation in Latin America with Open Source Platforms.” We’ve undertaken extensive PoC and service innovation trials using a range of open source platforms. Some of the findings include the importance of the service creation GUI for reducing time to market. USSD remains important for a range of new services, e.g. Mobile Advertising. Open source platforms are proving adept in managing the service transition to IMS/LTE.

To wrap up the ‘Telcos Making a Difference’ session Martina Saric, Service Enablers, T-Mobile Austria, presented on “Practical Experiences in Partnering.” Partnering is essential for telecom operators, but the process is not simple and has many potential failure points. The hard-won experiences of successful partner for mutual commercial success will be described.