How has the techo destination changed?

5G

Thursday 2 July 2026

How has the techo destination changed?

Telcos suffered years of severe criticism for not being like hyperscalers: the pressure was on to adopt hyperscalers’ operational practices and business models, and deliver digital customer experience. Yet Big Tech and telco have a different economics: the platform model increases margins as it scales up; telcos receive less for delivering more.

After more than a decade of constant ‘transformation’, less than 3% of a typical telco’s revenues come from edge, AI, APIs and digital services. And while in 2008, the average operator in Europe spent about 16% of revenue on capex in 2024, it was still between 15 and 18%, according to the OECD and others.

So what kind of ‘techco’ should telcos aim to be now or is the notion outdated? How has this changed and what do they need to do to turn their vision into reality?

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09:30AM | OPENING REMARKS

09:35AM | OPERATOR KEYNOTE

An operator’s point of view

Capex figures don’t begin to tell the whole story
Cost-cutting is not the goal so much as doing far more with a lot less
In 2024, opex-to-revenue ratio fell from 84% to 81% (0.5% reduction in opex = $10 billion savings across the global industry)
AI is about specific outcomes and control