TIP state of play: TEAC Waves pick up after extended slow down

While the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has continued to build momentum since its inception by Facebook in 2016, its telco-affiliated TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centre (TEAC) outposts have developed more erratically.

Of the now-three telco hosts, BT is the most obviously engaged, with January 2020 seeing it hold its TEAC UK Wave 3 recruitment. This ends a 15‑month hiatus in all TEAC recruitment activity, preceded by BT’s Wave 2 in October 2018. Prior to this, rounds were held at relatively regular intervals by BT as well as peers Deutsche Telekom (DT) and SK Telecom (SK). Since DT joined the party in November 2017, there have been four TEACs, of which three remain tagged as open and active.

• TEAC France in Paris was the first TEAC on the map, setting up early on in TIP’s inception. However, since its initial acceptance of five entrants to its programme, local incumbent Orange has gone dark bar a few appearances at fellow TEAC hosts’ Waves. It has now faded from TEAC listings, suggesting that it no longer actively participates in the initiative, although this may simply be an extended hiatus. Orange’s involvement in the broader TIP community, though extant, has become similarly muted in contrast to concerted collaborative efforts from its major European rivals (BTwatch, #300), including Telecom Italia and Telefónica (both of which host TIP Community Labs, as do BT and DT). Amarisoft and Horizon Computing, two of Orange’s TEAC alumni, now champion TIP’s Open Cellular project group alongside BT and Facebook.
• TEAC Germany, driven by DT and centred on Berlin, has only opened itself to one Wave of entries, but a second is understood to be imminent, themed around mobile edge computing (MEC) and open radio area network (oRAN). To date, DT’s attention at TIP has ostensibly been drawn to its involvement in various project groups, notably its co-chairing of the mmWave Networks Project Group (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #77).
• TEAC South Korea, hosted by SK in Seoul, has supported six startups from two Waves. SK Telecom ran its first two TEAC waves like clockwork, making its Wave 3 a notable omission from the 2019 calendar.
• TEAC UK, based at the BT Innovation Labs in Adastral Park, Suffolk, and also present in London’s Tech City, has arguably seen the most prominent partnerships, and appears the most active host following its 2020 Wave 3.

The TEAC community increasingly appears to be an adjunct to TIP, with the latter recently giving greater emphasis to its Community Labs and new TIP Exchange (qualified, interoperable solutions), along with its core Project groups. Arguably, the TEAC initiative is a better fit for BT than DT or SK. Unlike many of its international peers, BT has not in recent years been a high-profile corporate venturer, nor a prolific startup incubator. Instead it nowadays tends to take a non-equity partnership approach centred on BT Labs at Adastral Park, where it hosts a growing party of supplier innovation and startup outposts, primed partly by a global squadron of corporate innovation ‘scouts’. Reading between the lines, BT may as part of its recent existential reboot have reviewed and chosen to embrace TEAC UK at heart of its innovation strategy, very possibly recognising the alignment and promise of previous waves. This fits the impression that TEAC UK is becoming more BT-, less-TIP- and far-less-Facebook-oriented in terms of presentation and activity.

It is unclear overall how mutually-successfully TEACs have proved for hosts and alumni but BT is again notable, most recently partnering Zeetta Networks on a Smart Tourism project (BTwatch, #302), and with Accelleran, KETS Quantum, and Unmanned Life amongst others appearing to build on the foundations of TEAC UK success. Participants have credited TEAC UK with embedding them deeply and valuably into BT’s ecosystem, as well as leveraging the wider TIP community, and increasing their credibility and exposure with other large operators. TEACs were originally envisaged to have significant venture capital tie-ins, tapping multiple hundred million pounds in funding, but this appears to have faded away without any tangible delivery.