Cooperation between operators and over-the-top (OTT) platforms is essential.
This was the overarching sentiment of a panel discussion during one of the opening sessions of the AfricaCom conference at the Cape Town International Conference Centre yesterday morning.
Both OTT services and operators are learning about the limitations that either group has, noted Christian de Faria, MD and CEO of Airtel Africa, continuing that collaboration is crucial should operators and OTT platforms wish to be successful.
Accepting that some apps cannibalise SMS revenue, De Faria highlighted operators must acknowledge this does not make OTT players the enemy, but is simply a part of adaptations in consumer behaviour, and operators need to adapt to meet these changing needs. "OTT players need us - we have connectivity and infrastructure to make their platform work. And we need them too. There has to be more openness from both players. We need to all be playing the same tune."
Ahmad Farroukh, CEO of MTN South Africa, stated operators shouldn't focus on competition. "We all need to invest. Operators are not just a pipe. We must work with and host OTTs for the benefits of our stakeholders."
There is so much we can do together, in many ways, including rolling out the Internet faster and making connectivity simpler, said Chris Daniels, VP of product at Facebook's Internet.org.
Working together
Taxation was highlighted as a key barrier to reducing the overall cost of providing services. "What we are seeing is that many governments are thinking about how the Internet can assist them in providing services to their people. When they realise this, they see that connectivity is a means to improve their countries," said Daniels. He noted that promoting these ideas around connectivity only serves to encourage governments to get on board.
Taxation slows us down in terms of infrastructure investment in many countries, added De Faria.
Arthur Bastings, Millicom EVP for Africa, highlighted many governments fail to understand that connecting customers is about more than opening up communication channels; this connectivity has various social and economic benefits.
Operators need to make money from people accessing the Internet but operators and OTT services all have the desire to improve connectivity across the globe, and in Africa more specifically, which stands to benefit operators in the long run, said Marc Rennard, EVP for Africa and MEA at the Orange Group. Connecting the unconnected provides both a problem and an opportunity. Setting up the infrastructure to cater to the needs of this group of people must be profitable in some way in order for it to be a viable investment, Rennard continued.
Any proposal that is not profitable to operators will not make sense, agreed Daniels. If the operators are not getting what they need, they have no incentive to improve infrastructure, he said, acknowledging how much operators have already invested in global networks to connect people of the world.
Ultimately, all of the panellists agreed this is an era of greater collaboration and cooperation between operators and OTT players; what is required is for government to become a more active part of the debate.
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