‘Future of telco industry is not telcos’:

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

In a wide-ranging interview with Channel NewsAsia on Tuesday (Dec 4), Mr Rameez outlined how the industry could look like in the future, as well as how the three-year-old Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) intends to branch out into non-telco services.

He cited how telcos – not just local incumbents Singtel, StarHub or M1 with whom Circles.Life leases mobile network capacity from, but those globally – have shown that the “backwardness of their technology” means attempts to introduce digital services have not taken off or were not well received by people.

“Execution (of new services) is challenging when your infrastructure is from 10 years ago and are not agile,” the 36-year-old said.

He cited Google and Apple as examples of how technology companies, through for instance the introduction of e-SIM, are actually the ones innovating in the industry instead of telcos.

E-SIMs are digital SIMs that allows users to activate their cellular plan from telcos without needing to slot in a physical SIM card. Apple included this technology with its latest slate of iPhones, while Google actually takes on the role of an MVNO with its Project Fi – now renamed Google Fi – project.

DOUBLING DOWN ON DATA

Mr Rameez did point out that the roll-out of any digital service by Circles.Life will not be done just for the sake of doing so. After all, it is not a publicly listed company or heavily backed by investors such that it needs to constantly show growth.

The company, which has cornered nearly 5 per cent of the overall Singapore market, is mindful that any additional product will have to boost, not compromise, its profile, he added.

Citing the Discover feature as an example, he said it is an “interesting value proposition” for its user base as “people are still going around randomly trying to find new things”.

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