The Motion: Investors will drive a separation of the industry into ‘infraco’ and ‘servco’ models

The motion was DEFEATED at the event  - watch the live Q&A session discussing the motion (now available on-demand)

The telecoms industry complains of high regulation and having their hands tied when it comes to investment and a reasonable return on it. Given the structural changes in the market, is it time for a fresh view on how we fund networks and the services we all consume? There is no doubt that funding is available from governments, commercial sources as well  as funds traditionally interested in annuity revenue models akin to the utility sector. With players from the data centre side expanding into global services, tower companies offering additional services and the hyperscalers bringing their global bulk to the market, how do we fund the telecoms infrastructure of the future. Governments are extremely keen on the notions of 5G and fibre everywhere but who is going to fund it?

Expert Witnesses:

Tim Kelly

Lead ICT Policy Specialist, World Bank

Ulf Ewaldsson

Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile

Amy Wettenhall

Senior Vice President, Macquarie Group Limited

Greg Mesch

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, CityFibre

Arguing For the Motion:

Chris Lewis

Managing Director, Lewis Insight

Arguing Against the Motion:

Graham Wilde

CEO and Co-Founder, BWCS

Moderator:

Guy Daniels

Director of Content, TelecomTV