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Technology

Balancing supply and demand is crucial to long-lasting success for any organisation. There is little point in building a solution that no one wants to use. When it comes to telecoms, our ecosystem tends to fall into two camps: those who focus on researching future capabilities which are needed to drive innovation, and those who focus on driving adoption that will generate the revenue to fund the next stage of innovation.

But neither of these camps can exist without the other. There must be a firm balance between developing for the future and adopting for the now if the telco sector is to be successful. Without this, we run the risk of not innovating far enough into the future or innovating too much and developing products and services before what the market is ready for. It's a very difficult balance to get right.

The UK And Its Role In Innovation

The UK is known for its innovation but it has work to do in translating research and ideas from academia into tangible tools and solutions for the industry. Telecoms is a global industry and, when looking at adoption and developing future capabilities, collaboration across regions will help to deliver the best possible outcomes on an international level. That's important but the UK is a key player on that global stage, so it is vital we also ensure the UK is set up correctly to nurture our IP.

Telecoms is entrenched into the fabric of this country and the loss of IP from our shores is a loss to UK Plc. Exploiting and protecting our IP means leveraging our fantastic homegrown talent and encouraging investment to enable that talent, as an intrinsic part of UK telecoms, to reach its full potential.

It is up to leaders to ensure they are working with the wider telecoms industry to secure the guidance they need to turn their ideas into tangible solutions. This can of course be difficult to achieve in silos, which is why there is a role for innovation platforms such as UKTIN to play when it comes to making sure all companies have access to the support and networks they need to successfully translate their ideas through commercialisation and towards adoption.

Don't Be Distracted By The Shiny New Technology

There is also a battle to overcome in making sure companies have fully derived value from existing technologies as they continue to innovate.

Businesses – no matter where they're based geographically – have a tendency to always be seduced by the next great thing. For example, while the industry is shifting to discuss how 5/6G could shape the way we connect, there are still use cases where 2/3G remains vital, applications such as information at bus stops and smart meters. When it comes to the UK, leaders are ready to talk about AI and 6G, but haven't fully tapped into the value technologies such as 4G & 5G can offer to advance connectivity for citizens and businesses.

Balancing future capabilities and adoption is about understanding that the connectivity experience goes further than providing people with the quickest speed or the latest buzzword. The best experience comprises other factors, such as latency and capacity.

When considering the experience organisations want to deliver to their customers, they should not forget the impact of the end-user devices. Often these are the bottlenecks to a great experience. Therefore businesses must consider the full spectrum of complexity and consequences of change before running towards the next shiny thing.

That said, it's also important to not become too hyper-focused on what people are buying and using today. It's vital to continue to champion future capabilities too, which means the telecoms industry should never be static - it must grow and evolve. It's for this reason that our academic standing in telecoms in the UK is so strong. We have world-class individuals researching, considering and innovating for the next ten to 15 years.

While balancing future capabilities alongside adoption is not a straightforward task, these two sides of the same coin can't be viewed in isolation as they're critically interconnected. It is vital to create an ecosystem that considers telecoms from start to end, building an industry that can further flourish, including enabling IP to be retained in the UK.

Managing both entities involves having the right feedback loops and guidance in place, to ensure real-world need and market dynamics are driving future capability development, and that ideas are being translated into tangible solutions that help create better connectivity for citizens and businesses.