In collaboration with
the US tech giant, Telenor will develop product offerings for selected
industries, including manufacturing, logistics, and automotive, the Norwegian
firm's chief executive told Reuters.
"We are preparing
ourselves for the next growth wave," Sigve Brekke said in a telephone
interview, calling the transformation a "major shift" for Telenor.
A key selling point for customers ranging
from manufacturing to hospitals is the low latency that 'edge' technology,
enabled by cloud computing, brings to 5G services, Brekke said.
The Oslo-based group, which serves 172 million
customers with roughly half its revenue generated in Asia and half in the
Nordic region, last year announced a separate partnership with Alphabet's
Google Cloud.
"In this phase, nobody is big enough
on its own and nobody has it all," Brekke said, adding that Amazon was
strong on network components, while the Google Cloud collaboration was more
focused on products and analytics.
Telenor and AWS have together already
provided clients with solutions such as a prototype private 5G network for the
Norwegian defense forces' material agency, and private networks for corporate
customers.
They also plan add-on services in the 4G
area, Brekke said.
Telenor's Swedish virtual mobile network
operator Vimla, which uses many AWS services, is an example of how to
"disrupt the current business model with new type of technology,"
Brekke said.
"In the future we will focus more on
the business customers than we are currently doing," Brekke said, adding
that while the company's position in the business segment was strong in Norway,
that is not the case for the Nordics or Asia. © Reuters