08 June 2023

Roque Lozano, Senior Vice President Network, Infrastructure, Middle East & Africa, Nokia talks, premium connectivity and its impact on the network

Networks have been providing customers and consumers with multiple variations of connectivity for decades. The 3G and 4G revolutions shaping the market alongside LTE and fibre and now, 5G capabilities. The latter is easily defined as a step up from standard connectivity to premium - a network revolution that redefines what connectivity can do, how it can do it, and where it can take the business. However, premium connectivity goes beyond just the technology - it shifts the telecom company opportunity and the potential for revenue generation by up to 20%.

Premium connectivity is a technology evolution, but it is also an enabler of how other technologies and systems will evolve themselves. It forms the foundation for the realistic application of the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi 6, mobile applications and ecosystems, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and edge to cloud compute. Today it is the most advanced connectivity solution available, and it is one that pulls the hype and potential of connectivity together to deliver truly enhanced ecosystems, solutions, and digital transformation.

Another area where premium connectivity is critical is, of course, data. This, the so-called lifeblood of the business and new black gold of the enterprise, needs connectivity to really work as promised. Connectivity is the only way that the enterprise and the network can leverage the level of information needed to make clearcut, real-time decisions that truly are a competitive differentiator. Without it – the data simply sits, and takes up space.

With connectivity that taps into the extraordinary potential of 5G, services are transformed. Here, connectivity enhances communications, information sharing, service delivery and collaboration. This d i g i t a l - h y b r i d - re m o t e world demands that this connectivity be premium and capable to ensure the business remains productive and disruptive. Perhaps the best way to explain it would be as the plumbing. It’s not the most exciting part of a building, and it’s definitely not the most gripping to talk about, but without it there’s no water, hygiene and wellbeing. You can have all the water in the world, but without the plumbing you cannot get it to where it needs to be. Plumbing is essential to the smooth running of any establishment, and connectivity is critical to the smooth operations of any enterprise.

The real business value of premium connectivity can be seen in the private and public sectors. Connectivity is often the same when it hits the last mile to the business. The offerings are the same, the service is the same, and this is about to change. Premium implies more than just the technology and capability behind the connectivity, but the service provided to the enterprises that use it and how it empowers them to truly leverage their applications and their own customer services. Many customer applications need multi-point access across mobile devices, laptops, computers, televisions and multiple interconnections and premium connectivity allows for the enterprise and service provider to bring all the pieces together.

If you think of networks and data exchanges as a tree with billions of branches, each one a slice of connectivity connecting companies, services, applications, devices, people, and touchpoints, it is easy to see how there is no single point of connectivity. There is, however, a need to pull all these points together to ensure that the service is sustainable, reliable and secure. That it works when it needs to across different environments and sectors.

Implementing this connectivity asks that network operators take both a long- and short-term view. Historically, networks have been built from the bottom-up from across access to network to aggregation to edge to the core. Now more networks are taking a top-down approach to meet the needs of cloud service providers. Replicas of the models introduced by these companies are appearing all over Africa, the world and that means that operators need to understand how their services align with expectations and what it means to premium in each situation.

“For operators to thrive in this competitive landscape, they need to ensure their networks are sustainable and deliver value.”

Essentially, every operator needs to have the most agile network possible to support a multitude of requirements and this requires investment into infrastructure. It isn’t possible to have an infrastructure for every type of service - that is not sustainable, but you need to have an agile and secure network that can carry multi-service demands. For operators to thrive in this competitive landscape, they need to ensure their networks are sustainable and deliver value.

Tapping into the potential of premium connectivity allows for the networks to differentiate their offerings and create an infrastructure that can evolve with markets and demands.