DTWS: Telstra eyes having 80% of traffic on 5G by 2025
Telstra recently introduced its T25 strategy for growth. Nikos Katinakis, Group Executive Networks and IT Telstra, explains why the company is accelerating 5G deployment and why it is working closely with cloud hyperscalers.
22 Sep 2021
DTWS: Telstra eyes having 80% of traffic on 5G by 2025
Telstra recently introduced its T25 strategy for growth. Nikos Katinakis, Group Executive Networks and IT Telstra, discussed why the company is accelerating its 5G deployment, how it is addressing the industry-wide skills shortage and why it is working with cloud hyperscalers at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Series.
Telstra’s new T25 strategy aims to cover around 95% of Australia’s population with 5G by 2025, while doubling metro cells to increase 5G capacity and speed, all with the aim of having 80% of all mobile traffic on 5G by FY25. It is also simplifying its customer journeys. For example, it has reduced its number of consumer plans from 1800 to 20, explained Katinakis. At the same time, it wants to make $500 million of net cost reductions while ensuring Telstra can compete successfully for digital talent.
“The reason behind the accelerating pace of 5G deployment is, of course, what 5G enables – not only use cases and capabilities, but it also forces us to think differently about how we bring new services to the market; how we collaborate with partners, competitors, and other entities; and it ultimately forces us to think again about the right business models for the future,” said Katinakis.
Telstra identified five or six key core competencies it needed to invest in, including cloud engineers, data engineers, security software development and network engineering capability. “Those functions we’ve continued to grow, even as we cut costs across the company,” said Katinakis.
Telstra, which over the last three years has removed $2.5 billion worth of costs, is externalizing its commitments by sharing detailed, audited scorecards with the market, according to Katinakis.
Despite the change, “people are a lot happier because the career opportunities dramatically change,” he said.
“We have a much better planning process where the way we allocate capital and OpEx is a lot more transparent. There are no black holes; there are no secret projects; there are no pet projects. It is a lot more efficient because everything is a lot more transparent,” he explained.
Removing complexity also makes it easier to partner, including with cloud hypescalers. How to partner with cloud companies is one of the big questions facing the industry.
Katinakis believes Australia’s size and Telstra’s large enterprise business and consulting and advisory practice means “the way we have approached this is an absolute partnership with…hyperscalers, unified go to market models, co-creation of services, identifying problems that we can solve together, while at the same time competing with them in some instances."
Connectivity will remain central to Telstra’s business, and Katinakis sees a role for monetizing the resiliency of distributed networks within an ecosystem of partners.
“We believe [network] resiliency could be a monetizable differentiator and we believe that the network of the future will be a lot more distributed than it is today,” explained Katinakis. “It is very important that you have resiliency on top of that, how you design those locations, how you collaborate with hyperscalers and cloud providers, whether private hybrid or public, doesn’t matter.
Watch Nikos' session on Enabling the tech driven telco: Developing a clear technology roadmap for support the operating model of the future.
Telstra’s new T25 strategy aims to cover around 95% of Australia’s population with 5G by 2025, while doubling metro cells to increase 5G capacity and speed, all with the aim of having 80% of all mobile traffic on 5G by FY25. It is also simplifying its customer journeys. For example, it has reduced its number of consumer plans from 1800 to 20, explained Katinakis. At the same time, it wants to make $500 million of net cost reductions while ensuring Telstra can compete successfully for digital talent.
“The reason behind the accelerating pace of 5G deployment is, of course, what 5G enables – not only use cases and capabilities, but it also forces us to think differently about how we bring new services to the market; how we collaborate with partners, competitors, and other entities; and it ultimately forces us to think again about the right business models for the future,” said Katinakis.
Telstra identified five or six key core competencies it needed to invest in, including cloud engineers, data engineers, security software development and network engineering capability. “Those functions we’ve continued to grow, even as we cut costs across the company,” said Katinakis.
“It’s a signal we’re sending to everybody... We all have to change the way we work, because otherwise the future is not going to belong to us,” said Katinakis. “It was the absolute commitment of the management team to drive that change across the organization.”
Telstra, which over the last three years has removed $2.5 billion worth of costs, is externalizing its commitments by sharing detailed, audited scorecards with the market, according to Katinakis.
Despite the change, “people are a lot happier because the career opportunities dramatically change,” he said.
“We have a much better planning process where the way we allocate capital and OpEx is a lot more transparent. There are no black holes; there are no secret projects; there are no pet projects. It is a lot more efficient because everything is a lot more transparent,” he explained.
Partnering with hyperscalers
Removing complexity also makes it easier to partner, including with cloud hypescalers. How to partner with cloud companies is one of the big questions facing the industry.
Katinakis believes Australia’s size and Telstra’s large enterprise business and consulting and advisory practice means “the way we have approached this is an absolute partnership with…hyperscalers, unified go to market models, co-creation of services, identifying problems that we can solve together, while at the same time competing with them in some instances."
“We have chosen to partner with them to bring value to our customers, jointly,” he said. “We all need to understand and accept that business models are going to change. And it’s not only going be a monthly fee or… prepaid,” said Katinakis. “We are looking at very, very unique and different business.”
Monetizing resiliency
Connectivity will remain central to Telstra’s business, and Katinakis sees a role for monetizing the resiliency of distributed networks within an ecosystem of partners.
“We believe [network] resiliency could be a monetizable differentiator and we believe that the network of the future will be a lot more distributed than it is today,” explained Katinakis. “It is very important that you have resiliency on top of that, how you design those locations, how you collaborate with hyperscalers and cloud providers, whether private hybrid or public, doesn’t matter.
“You have to have the ability to move workloads…to the right location at the right time with the right triggers. That’s resiliency for the future and I would encourage everybody to take a harder look at how we’re going to do it.”
Watch Nikos' session on Enabling the tech driven telco: Developing a clear technology roadmap for support the operating model of the future.
