The internet lab zooms in on the future of telecom with our ‘Telecom Time Capsules’ (#TTC).
Our next guest in this series brings an engineers’ perspective: William Webb is a strategist, technologist, and Board member with experience in industry, government, and academia. A former Ofcom director, he published ‘The End of Telecoms History’ in June 2024.
📌 TTC Highlights
⏲️[00:00] Intro
⏲️[00:16] Let's Enable
⏲️[03:05] Let's Avoid
Key quotes:
🗣️ A new era of connectivity: “There's been a significant change, as I set out in a new book that I published just recently called 'The End of Telecoms History.' We've now moved to a world where, finally, we have sufficient connectivity.”
🗣️ Shifting policy focus: “(...) the historical role of policymakers—of improving that connectivity—is no longer necessary. We don't need more, we don't need faster, better networks. But what's left is to fill in the holes, to deliver ubiquity.”
🗣️ Avoiding outdated priorities: “So, to sum up, what should policymakers avoid? Well, they should avoid fighting the last battle. They should avoid obsessing about things like Gigabit connectivity (...) We already have enough. We don't need to push for more.”
🗣️ Adapting to the new reality: “We have all the tools we need to do these kinds of things. But it is a very major shift in mindset amongst regulators and others, and I think it will be quite difficult for some of them to get their heads around what's now needed in the world of sufficient connectivity.”
💡 The 'Telecom Time Capsule' concept
Our bite-sized videos bring you:
↪️ expert predictions on the evolving needs of a thriving connectivity environment for users and businesses, and
↪️ crucial insights on what policy-makers should (1) enable and (2) avoid.
#TelecomTimeCapsules