Global telecoms operators need to work together to stave off the threat to their core revenues posed by new market entrants, such as Internet companies and broadcasters, said KT.
Speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Paris, Jon-Lok Yoon, SVP, R&D group at KT, proposed the formation of a new industry body to be known as Telco 2.0, and urged interested parties to get in touch.
The group, which would operate under the umbrella of the IEC, is expected to have working groups in place by December, with official inauguration scheduled for January 2007.
Telco 2.0 is aimed at traditional telecoms operators, but 'we will cooperate with Internet giants and vendors as well,' Jon-Lok Yoon told conference delegates. The project is designed to focus on 'value-creation opportunities' on top of legacy systems, Yoon explained.
KT's revenues from traditional telephony services have declined by half a billion dollars per year for the past five years, said Yoon.
To date, this has been offset by $0.5 billion per annum rise in broadband revenues, but this stream is likely to dry up as broadband penetration approaches saturation.
'There's no more growth anymore in broadband access,' said Yoon. And all telecoms operators are in the same boat. '[A] Telco 2.0 forum could be a good tool.'
More than 13 million households in Korea, or 83% of the total, have broadband Internet access, said Yoon. 'Internet traffic has been growing,' he added.
Operators need to capitalise on this by developing new offers that will create new revenue streams on top of access.
The telco needs to become a 'total solution provider', said Yoon. 'We have to accumulate more layers' on top of the infrastructure.
One way KT is tackling this is by concentrating on offering full solutions to SME customers, including consulting services and software solutions. 'Our plan is to have more than 1.5 million small and medium subscribers by the end of 2010,' said Yoon. He added that KT receives government support amounting to $100 per SME subscriber 'for educating our customers'.
The operator has also embarked on eight R&D projects, looking at what it believes will be key areas, in preparation for Telco 2.0. These include content, computing power and knowledge consulting.
'Telco 2.0 is a path to a new business model,' insisted Yoon."”Total Telecom