BT Technology’s 2029 vision: a future at your service, as-a-service

As would be expected, connectivity is at the core of future BT; it is “bread and butter”, according to Watson. However, Technology is proceeding on the basis that the evolved converged network that the division is creating will provide new opportunities for BT to develop new business models, leveraging the capabilities of the cloud-native infrastructure.

• Connectivity-as-a-service. The foundation, as ever would be the network, with BT envisaging its converged photonic core infrastructure delivering Quantum Key -secured connectivity, and supporting technology such as telemetry, and a plethora of 5G-enabled connectivity-based applications
• Trust-as-a-service. BT is aiming to become a trusted partner for data management, “treating it as an extension of our own”. Again, BT’s security strengths are expected to support this positioning, which will also see the operator make use of blockchain technology.
• Actionable insight-as-a-service. While BT is anticipating becoming a trusted handler of customer data, it is also aiming to curate data to provide useable information for customers through applications or application programing interfaces. BT sees opportunities in health and monitoring, cyber-analytics, data hub-based distribution, and IoT.
• Productivity-as-a-service. BT expects the evolution of its network to enable the creation of new applications and services from its virtualised and componentised systems. This in turn is expected to create new business models with fraud analysis, services in the home, and analytics and optimisation related to field-force operations highlighted.

Going beyond bread and butter, but proof to be in pudding

The anticipated new opportunities outlined in Watson’s view of BT in ten years’ time fit the wider expectations for development of the communications market and, as such, come with the usual risks.

Beyond provisioning the relentless demand for connectivity and bandwidth, and perhaps the most closely related services such as network security, it is not certain that BT will be able to position itself effectively as a trusted gateway for managing data or provide innovative services that can be built on such data. Managing this uncertainty, however, may go beyond the remit of BT Technology, which is focused on creating the capabilities and providing customer-facing divisions with the opportunity to use them.

Success may, therefore, be dependent on the development of effective relationships between the technologists and the commercial side of the business. Throughout the presentation, BT Technology attempted to underline the collaborative relationships that it has with the other lines-of-business, which at least indicates that the division is aware of the challenges ahead.

Towards the end of the event, Watson struck a note of optimism when he discussed the challenge of competing with the FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) in digital markets, by suggesting that the UK’s new government and proposed plans for the economy after the exit from the European Union could create opportunities for BT to take a lead in the country.

“[As] the political environment in the UK changes over the next few months, I think that could absolutely create opportunities where we could do things for the nation, and customers in the nation, which are unique and rely on our true local presence to create capability that can generate sources of income there, and that’s what we’re focused on looking for.”

– Watson.

Near and far research priorities

Watson discussed the current areas of focus within BT Technology’s research department at Adastral Park.

The more immediate priorities have been set out before, and are well established as part of the Group’s transformation plans. Beyond these, the attention of researchers appears to be shared among developments that could be considered either theoretical or practical.