Next wave of content and services: Delivering value in a connected world

There was another panel discussion around the next wave of content and services: Delivering value in a connected world. It was moderated by Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.

Himanshu Mishra, VP, Digital, Vodafone Idea, said that we have moved from a telco setup to a telco++ setup. We had started with music, game, etc. Now, we have added astrology, insurance, etc. We are also ready to embrace new technologies that are coming up.

Evolution of data
Dharmender Khajuria, Head, Network Partnerships, Bharti Airtel, added that let us see how the data is being consumed, and how it is evolving. Data was consumed 22-24GB per person. It will jump to 60GB per person. Data is currently being consumed on social apps. Smartphones have 76% penetration, going to 90% in the next four to five years. We are deploying from urban to rural areas. We are partnering with other streaming services.

5G brings low latency and high data speeds. It is also opening up new areas, such as healthcare, education, agriculture, etc. AR/VR is seeing dynamic changes. It is changing landscape for education in India. Things are going to change with immersive experience. Content is now becoming more immersive and personalized. It is also going to be very short. Communities will get developed around the content. It will no longer be monopoly of the big ones.

Cloud services also need to evolve. Tushar Gupta, Customer Engineer, Infrastructure Modernization Specialist, Google Cloud, said we are seeing changes in requirements. From cloud services, we are committed to AI/ML, GenAI, etc., capabilities. We are providing content in much faster way. These channels also need high power of computation. 

Businesses are looking to diversify. Are mechanisms and networks ready to support them? Hitesh Tailor, Director, Sales Engineering, Ciena India, added that service providers need to change rapidly. They must build robust and adaptive networks. Content creators can now create games for networks that are always connected.

Focus on AR/VR
Mishra added that AR has been around for some time. High-definition and high-quality content has been lacking. They also need to be engaging. We are waiting for the next trend to hit hard. We recently launched cloud games, as a precursor to AR/VR games. While we see partners coming in, innovations are also happening. However, quality and customer engaging part is missing. We need to make technology monitizable.

Gupta noted that we interact with gaming companies. They are leveraging new-age technologies, such as GenAI. It is growing at a fast pace, especially in Apac. We definitely look for free games!

Khajuria added that Netflix has some recommendations. Content needs to be more interactive. It is also going to engage users even more. You can change stories, as you wish. We are seeing content becoming immersive. You can enjoy concerts using VR. They can be organized with players across different locations. As Airtel, we need to ensure that data speeds remain good. India has seen the fastest 5G rollout across the world. The user experience will also get enhanced.

Gupta said they are also partnering with service providers, such as Airtel. We are helping TSPs to also offer services to their customers. Mishra noted that we are working with the top IT companies. We are also collaborating with startups to see who will be the first adopter. VR is part of our lives, and it is coming in. We are evaluating pros and cons of the services. As the experience improves, they are going to get monetized. Gupta added that we need to look at monetization. Laws have so far been framed in other countries.

Tailor noted that Google is the biggest generator of content. Ciena is partnering with them. Individual content creators can go to cloud provider, and maybe, go live with audiences. Service providers are in position to do that. That way, content providers will always remain connected with their users.

Gen AI role
GenAI is going to play a major role in future. Mishra said Adobe gave them a demo. It seemed like a miracle! You can use prompts to create a presentation. You can now use prompts to create images. We are looking at how do we use that.

Gupta added that they had a unique proposition. We have time of 15 seconds for story to connect to the emotions of the user. We need to see how stories can be more interactive in the future. We also need to provide sentiment analysis. Predictive AI does the sentiment analysis. We also need to see how can we contribute that to a story book and videos.

Khajuria said things are going to change rapidly. The world is becoming more dynamic, and connected. All kinds of recommendations are also going to come in. Tailor added that with 3s of your voice, AI can generate images. We need to be ready for that.