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In his latest PTC’17 post-conference editorial, Stephen
McClelland stated: “a very big wave indeed is headed
our way!” By all accounts, PTC is riding a new wave. The
organization is closing four decades of navigating the ICT
industry transformation with its own transformation.
Visible signs of a renewed sense of purpose and confident
identity were apparent: a new logo for the Council,
a refreshed conference experience, a modern digital
experience and a novel networking technology to connect
attendees and content with a “spark.” But, there was more
to the conference than met
the eye.
PTC’17 saw yet another
surge in attendance. A
continuous
growth
in
participation
that
goes
far beyond numbers. New
members included the
new driving forces of our
industry: Facebook, Netflix,
numerous cloud and OTT
providers joined hundreds
of PTC members to make
their voices heard and
their opinion count. New
discussions on how ICT is a key global socio-economic
driver and dialogues on how to deal with issues right were
at the top of their agenda.
CONNECTIONS OPEN THE WORLD
The PTC’17Conferencewelcomed nearly 7,000 attendees
from over 75 countries, opening its doors to more than
2,000 delegates participating to a packed three-day mara-
thon of over 200 keynotes, panels and workshops.
Under its “
Changing Realities
” theme, one thing became
crystal clear:
the connective fabric of PTC is rich, ever-extending and
incredibly colorful – and the conference, a stage for
an animated forum.
Discussions range from carrier strategies, data centers,
subsea telecom and satellites to IoT and spectrum.
Stephen summarized the content as a huge wave of
possibilities only starting to gather its true strength.
Amongst a plethora of facts and opinions, eight key take-
aways stood out strongly:
Everything is adding up.
Data
drivers are exploding. Multi-
plicative, related and synergistic
effects between big data, IoT,
5G, massive connectivity and
AI are building and amplifying
this wave.
Global connectivity build is rol-
ling massively but it’s not spec-
ulative or without substance.
In the current climate, some
suggest it will continue with no
sign of the dotcom-like bust of
the early 2000’s.
5G
will by itself usher in radically
new network architectures to
continue to glue applications together. But it will require very
high investment over many years. Spectrum availability will
remain a key issue and a key driver on its own.
Meanwhile,
networks are changing rapidly
, and the change is
fluid. The geography of data delivery and edge architectures
matter. Latency is emerging as a key demand. Content and
network issues more than ever are increasingly becoming
aligned.
The
satellite community
is also bustling with renewed vigor
as new projects—including a next generation of satellite
constellation plans—take shape.
Generic
IoT applications
are in sight, but not quite yet within
WHY PTC’17:
CHANGING REALITIES
MATTERS TO YOU.
PROJECTING THE NEXT DECADE, SO “CONNECTIONS OPEN THEWORLD”
By Sophie Ann Terisse
Channel
Vision
|
March - April, 2017