Why Telecom Operators Are The Face Of Innovation -Manu JAIN – BW Disrupt

When the world was a safer place, if one wandered to the middle of any crowded market in India and asked the question “How many of you have touched a credit card in your life?” – the number of hands that would go up would be considerably lower than the number of hands that would go up if the question was “How many of you have touched a SIM card in your life?”

Such is the penetration and impact of Telecom operators in the second most-populous country on Planet Earth.

India is also the second-largest telecom market by subscriber base. For a rapidly developing country, telecommunication has contributed tremendously to the socio-economic development of the nation and has modernised multiple sectors.

Today’s top headlines would have you believe that India set out on the path of becoming a technological superpower only after being discovered by the likes of Silicon Valley or illustrious startups. However, even before the Start-Up frenzy and the rise in Internet Adoption of our country, Telecom Operators were the innovation factory and the forefront of this revolution.

While Telecom Operators historically had Voice, Text, and Mobile Internet as products they would regularly launch content-based offerings either on Voice, Text or even Apps. They launched industry-altering products regularly even before Media headlines about product launches became popular.

Today’s youth has Spotify, JioSaavn, Gaana, Youtube music, MPL, Dream 11, and dozens of other apps on their phones to accomplish what began as services offered decades ago by Telecom operators.

We’re talking about an industry that revolutionised Music Streaming, Astrology, Gaming & rural products much before the current Start-ups had made their mark. The journey of products launched by Telecom Operators are far and many and if you were to see Start-Ups or even unicorns today, the inspiration for some of them might be closer to home than away.

To give you a little refresher course, much before the advent and the discovery of OTT Apps, customers would call up IVR(those voice short-codes) and listen to content for hours on Telecom Operator short-codes; maybe somewhere there lay the inspiration for today’s streaming Apps.

The rise of HR-tech and job portals has attracted attention and funding in India, given it helps satisfy the needs of both India and ‘Bharat’. Especially in the blue-collared job sector, history dictates that back in 2013 one of our leading Telecom Operators launched a portal service for blue collared workforce on Voice and Text which has now become an internet-backed service. Today’s companies have driven innovation on both the execution and platform front-credit where it’s due- but the Telecom industry deserves kudos for the kind of first principles thinking that sparked off a technological revolution in India and beyond.

Even a sector like Astrology, something that is akin to socially-accepted therapy for a majority of Indians saw a new avatar from Telecom operators first. The only organised form of consuming Astrology till very recently was via calling astrologers on telecom operators where people would get their queries answered. Fast forward to 2021 and more than a couple of astrology start-ups are doing phenomenal business carrying the baton of early telecom operator products, now facilitated by the internet.

As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery and maybe it holds true for a lot of businesses and sectors in our country. The Telecom industry deserves kudos for being the spark and catalyst behind true innovation in the past, present, and perhaps even the future