Telcos vs OTT: another round

Another round in the endless battle.

In the CTO panel, CTOs from SK Telecom and Telstra nominated the OTT threat, the mobile data explosion and demands posed by cloud services as among their concerns.

Telstra's Hugh Bradlow said parnerships with OTT firms were “an inevitable trend in the industry” and would be on the basis of the telcos ensuring consistency and reliability in return for a commercial deal.

SKT's Choi Jin Sung said working with internet players was akin to “sleeping with enemy” but conceded that the operator's job was to satisfy the needs of customers.

“If the customers want an OTT service we have to let them use it," he said. “On the other hand, we need to secure our business models, and not be jeopardised by those OTT players.”

Choi flagged up SKT's planned launch of an RCS-based instant messaging service to rival free messaging apps such as Whatsapp.

In response, Youku CTO Leo Jian Yao said the listed online video service was not getting any cooperation from operators.

“We do not have good collaboration," he told the panel.  If there was a service that could be offered across the country, we shouldn't just look at the price [of offering it],” he said.

By contrast handset players wanted to work with Youku, and customers were demanding to be able access content via their mobile device.

Additionally, Chinese customers often did not have a credit card, and preferred to pay via their phone bill, but operators “are reluctant to work with us – they wish to do everything themselves.”

“So for us there are many opportunities and man opportunities for working with the carrier.  What is needed is more in-depth collaboration."