AI and automation were the hottest topics among the attendees of International Telecoms Week 2024, a huge annual gathering for the industry in the US. This year, DNA Wholesale and Telenor Sweden Wholesale attended it in synchronized mode for the first time.
The International Telecoms Week (ITW) has been held annually since 2008 for key players in the industry. This year, almost 10,000 participants from around the world attended.
“It is crucial to attend events such as ITW, which are a great opportunity to learn about megatrends in the industry. It is also important for us to spread the word about our wholesale business because we are not that well known as a player in the fiber and capacity market,” says Joakim Andersson, Head of Wholesale at Telenor Sweden.
“The beauty of conferences is how they gather everyone in the same place. It is nice to see different people and talk about ongoing activities with existing and potential customers and suppliers,” adds Juho Hyvärinen, Sales Director, Fixed Services at DNA Wholesale.
ITW confirmed the impact of key trends, AI, and automation
Regarding trends, this year’s ITW mostly provided both Andersson and Hyvärinen confirmation that artificial intelligence and automation are the hottest ones. They will thoroughly change the ways the industry works.
The increasing level of automation allows for leaving out certain routine tasks and focusing on service development, for instance. The rapid increase of AI drives the need for more data centers, which affects the Nordics as they are very attractive locations with cheap energy and a stable political environment. This also benefits the telecom wholesale providers.
“The rise of AI means that many companies need much more capacity and higher bandwidth connectivity services to manage the huge amount of data. Telenor and DNA, with our modern core networks and fiber availability, are more than happy to help address their demand,” says Hyvärinen.
Tight cross-Nordic cooperation
Telenor and DNA participated with a mutual team consisting of two people from Sweden and three from Finland, making tight cooperation at the event.
“We met the customers and prospects as one team with a common branding and presented ourselves as one company. Last year’s event was already the starting point of our journey, giving us many useful insights and learnings. This year, we took a big step in being a one-stop shop for wholesale across the Nordics. All in all, we were working in a synchronized mode,” Andersson tells.
The duo had plenty of prescheduled meetings but also lots of spontaneous ones, with companies stepping in and coming to the team’s table.
“Many people wanted to hear about the ongoing state of our cooperation and what is happening when we are integrating more and more with Telenor. As a result, we have the ability to serve customers from one place. In general, people appreciated our new way of working together and our focus on the Nordic markets”, Hyvärinen describes.
He has participated in ITW many times before, but the last time was back in 2019. For Andersson, this was the second time at the event.
“It was a very intense experience with long, busy days. It was a bit strange to go all the way to the USA to meet familiar customers from the Nordics, but it was good to be outside the conference room. Actually, I think the meetings were the highlight of the event,” Andersson concludes.
Do you want to know more about cross-Nordic wholesale services provided by DNA and Telenor Sweden? Read more: DNA Wholesale.
