Stuart Mitchell, business development director, mobility solutions, Tata Communications. Image: Luke Maxwell
Mobile telcos need to band together to defeat OTTs, says Tata Communications director Stuart Mitchell.
According to Stuart Mitchell from Tata Communications, operators need to find ways of innovating and collaborating together to stem the losses caused by rising data volumes but falling revenues.
Unless mobile operators work together on prices and roaming charges, OTTs will continue to eat their lunch, he warned.
‘The mobile operators’ biggest nightmare is to become a dumb bit pipe and yet, that is what we are seeing in the market’
– STUART MITCHELL
Mitchell spoke to Siliconrepublic.com during the recent GSMA WAS summit in Dublin, hosted by software company Anam.
Tata Communications is the sixth-biggest mobile operator in India and one of the largest subsea infrastructure providers to the global telecoms industry.
The WhatsApp ship has sailed
More than 1,200 senior executives from mobile giants including AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Hutchison and China Mobile – responsible for at least half of the world’s mobile traffic – attended the event.
“The mobile operators’ biggest nightmare is to become a dumb bit pipe and yet, that is what we are seeing in the market. It is a challenge to the industry, how they can innovate.
“There is no point developing a competitor to WhatsApp, that ship has sailed.
“They need to think about how they can develop networks and reduce pricing tariffs,” Mitchell said.
