Carriers warned that they are courting complacency on long-term strategies of OTTs

At a panel discussion which took place at Capacity Middle East carriers were warned that they were tempting fate with their almost complacent attitude to the possible long-term strategies of the major OTT players.

Speaking at the event Amr A. Eid, CEO, Gulf Bridge International said: “We have to be honest – are we transforming our industry to cope with the internet of things (IoT) or the threat of the OTTs at the speed which these competitors are working? I don’t think we are.”

Eid suggested that the speed a Facebook or an (Amazon Web Services) can spin up an app, get it into an app store and have it used by millions with a few days or weeks is just beyond the capabilities of most of the carrier industry. He said: “There is a chasm opening up  between what we should be covering and doing but we are not doing it.”

Serkan Sevim, CEO of Medianova also threw doubts on the abilities of the present carrier eco system to provide the OTTs and consumers with the speed of communications which they now required as basic. He said: “Forget hubs in Frankfurt and Marseilles – they serve up latencies of 135ms when 11.5ms is what is needed from a local Middle Easter hub.