France Telecom exec beats optimistic drum at Motorola confab
By John Walko -- CommsDesign.com -- June 5, 2003 (11:17 a.m. EST)
PARIS — Network operators and their suppliers need to start focusing more on the needs of their wireline customers as the industry picks up and somewhat less on satisfying the needs of the mobile sector, Didier Lombard, a senior executive vice president of France Telecom told the Motorola's European Smart Network Developers conference on Thursday (June 5).
Even though Lombard said he anticipates a turn around for telecom after the ”deep crisis” of the last few years and the consolidation that has resulted, "we will still see serious restructuring, and I expect some equipment suppliers and some operators will not survive. It's going to be a battlefield."
One way France Telecom will "look after" its fixed line customers, Lombard said, is to introduce the kind of services that mobile customers have grown accustomed. Examples include messaging services like SMS and a database that will allow users to control their diary, contacts and messages on regular phones.
Lombard revealed that France Telecom will next week outline its strategy for high-speed broadband access. "I can't give too much away here, but we have listened to customers and we want to take care of them, by offering everyone high-speed ADSL, wherever and whenever."
There has been a hot debate in France and elsewhere in Europe about the pace of ADSL rollout and the fact that many customers in rural and outlying areas have been treated as second-class customers.
Lombard said most operators are now planning to increase investmen and that he anticipates market growth to reach 8 to 10 percent over the next few years. "Its possible to stop investment for two or three years and still maintain a good service, but after that you really need to push on by introducing new technologies and services."
He said some in the sector may have been a "little bit mad" to develop all this innovative technology in such a huge downturn, but those that stuck with it might soon reap the rewards.
"However, we really need to be smart about this, and not burden customers with overcomplicated terminals that requires them to be engineers." The key is to add intelligence to terminals and services, offer high-speed connections and great connections between fixed and mobile networks, yet keep everything simple to use, Lombard said.
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