Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites attract?! - Are Telecoms and WebRTC opposites? - The diversity of interpretation of WebRTC in Telecoms. - Why is WebRTC so attractive for operators? - How can operators be attractive for WebRTC developers? Presented at the WebRTC Summit Europe in Berlin, Germany

1. – strictly confidential, confidential, internal, public – 10/27/2014 1
TELECOMS & WEBRTC: OPPOSITES ATTRACT?!
SEBASTIAN SCHUMANN, SLOVAK TELEKOM
27. October 2014. Berlin, Germany

2. SCOPE
Telecoms & WebRTC: ‘Opposites attract’?!
 Are Telecoms and WebRTC opposites?
 The diversity of interpretation of WebRTC in Telecoms.
 Why is WebRTC so attractive for operators?
 How can operators be attractive for WebRTC developers?
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 2
@s_schumann
Feedback is welcome, get in touch during/after the event!

3. SLOVAK TELEKOM
 Former fixed & mobile incumbent (merger in 2010), Zoznam, Posam, DIGI
 Diverse service portfolio (fixed/mobile network and communications
services, Internet access + content, data services, CPE, ICT services
(data center + cloud), radio/TV broadcasting, call center services, …)
The major shareholder is Deutsche Telekom AG.
Successful deployments in SEE as well as in DT group:
 One of the biggest national-wide deployment of NGN technology in
Europe in 2004, whole city migrated to all-IP NGN in 2007
 Fixed network IMS migration to be finished in 2014
 Leader in IPTV, offering hybrid sat TV (s. 2009) & OTT app (s. 2012)
 Extensive FTTx deployments (360k households)
 First nation-wide 4G/LTE network (s. 2013)
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 3
Slovak Telekom Group is the telecoms market leader in Slovakia

4. Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 4

5. WHAT IS WEBRTC?
 WebRTC is about enabling web developers access to audio/video input devices via JavaScript and abstracting
the problem of real-time browser-to-browser communication
 WebRTC is a technology, not a service. For operators, is also an invitation to “rethink your thinking”
 When WebRTC is discussed within operator units, they are almost always discussed with legacy assumptions
in mind
 For many, “adding WebRTC” means adding voice/video to a service and have this service in the browser
 Thinking due to Telecom’s business’ history: “communications” = “telephony”
 It comes with less defined constraints than previous services (even VoLTE/RCS), operators sometimes forget that!
 WebRTC is NOT (only/mainly) about “calling” from within the browser
 Voice is no longer a stand-alone service or product, but becomes more and more an integral part of a service
 Disruption not only technology wise, but also business model wise (value shift from pure connection to context)
 The discussion about WebRTC & IMS should not be at the beginning, but the end of any consideration
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 5

6. ARE TELECOMS AND WEBRTC OPPOSITES?
 What defines Telecoms in the context of today’s
presentation?
 Incumbent role in offering interoperable real-time
communications to the general public
 E2E standardized communications
 Operator network interconnection
 Communications services are paid for by the user
 Value in connecting to others
 Network evolution much more progressive than real-time
voice/messaging evolution
 How does the Web compare to that?
 Evolution from content and E-mail to all sorts of
synchronous and social communication
 Technology advances are latest challengers of
incumbent universal communications services
 Flexible cross service/service provider interworking
through well-defined API’s
 Various monetization models, often free offering
 Value in solving problems, gathering communities,
making things fun, data analysis, etc.
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 6
 Any answer can fit, depending on the context. The question needs to be looked at from different angles
TELECOMS PARADIGM WEBRTC PARADIGM

7. NEW RULES ON A COMMON PLAYGROUND
 In the past, integrated operator communications services were ‘a given’
 Smart phones nowadays used for everything but ‘telephony’, yet the service is still present
 Connectivity was costly, which lead to the rise of alternative online service provider
 International minutes affected initially, paved the way for working on experience
 The “smart phone revolution” disrupted the operator business model even more
 All of a sudden SMS faced with replacement option that had similar service characteristics
 Service extensions and experience improvements continued
 Basic apps minor increase in how we communicate remotely
 WebRTC was released, the web revolution for RTC just started, and many things are entirely new
 The efforts decreased, free technology and means that were expensive before
 Technology introduced to operators by their long-time vendors, hard to ignore
 And here we are in October 2014, trying to find out how this all new “thing” fits Telecoms
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 7
T -11y
T -7y
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8. TELECOMS BECAME QUICKLY “ATTRACTED” TO WEBRTC
 All-IP enabled straight-forward backend access to services
 Usually only delivered via non-IP front-end so far (i.e. legacy interface that has not evolved much)
 “Traditional units” learn from it through legacy services upgrade
 Mainly stimulated by vendors (i.e. “outside stimulation”), often not internal need that could not be satisfied before
 “Nomadic access” introduced “natively” (e.g. VoLTE usually starts with VoWiFi) started to open mind, too
 “Innovation units” embrace it themselves
 Need for new revenue streams/business models arises
 Use cases or prototypes can be developed so much faster than before
 Much easier to show what WebRTC is at first hand
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 8

9. Create new services
& partner
CHANCES FOR OPERATORS
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 9
Service Strategy
Improve legacy services
Evolution Innovation

10. EVOLUTION
IMPROVE LEGACY SERVICES
 It is an important area, since it still pays the bills for now
 Modernization of current service portfolio has to be done
 Legacy communications dealt with RTC, has just recently received a new polished infrastructure
 “Adding” multiple new ways of accessing it is natural
 Web gateway (utilizing WebRTC) as “IMS alternative access” is of course one use case
 Should not be “WebRTC strategy”, but overhauling services – so far it is all about the technology
 Service updates can include “modernized interfaces”, but need to go beyond
 Adding “Web” to existing products means they are defined, and mostly limited
 Integration where it makes sense is more important than a “pure web dialer”
 Sample: “Real” triple play
 The "front-end design/functions defines services now, the back-end is completely irrelevant
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 10
WebRTC

11. INNOVATION
CREATE NEW SERVICES
 Operators need to adapt a lot of their thinking
 We do not build a “WebRTC service”/“cloud service”; we need to build services that solve problems
 Once the service is defined, the technologies can be chosen based on many criterions
 It has to be elaborated per service how it should be exposed, delivered, and made accessible
 Telephony: IMS/MMTel/VoLTE vs. lightweight open-source alternatives – almost exclusively SIP
 Non-telephony: Own backend, libraries, protocol alternatives (XMPP, REST/JSON)
 Final architecture is a case-by-case decision, not just use because it is there (efficiency, suitability)
 For everything that is not telephony, alternatives most likely much more suitable
 Less ubiquitous, but more targeted applications will replace general purpose communications
 Flexible re-useable capabilities exposed through simple APIs are tremendously important
 Standardized core technologies (HTML/CSS/JS, Objective-C, Java), but not services
 Standardized interfaces (REST API with doc/SDK is enough) trumps complex E2E scenarios
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 11
WebRTC

12. WHY IS WEBRTC SO ATTRACTIVE FOR OPERATORS?
 It is attractive, because it is an opposite with so much potential
 WebRTC can be one of the technologies to accelerate service development and decrease costs, if operators
want to build services that are:
 Access independent/network independent/location independent
 Use a software front-end (app/web)  Completely new experience in how they deliver voice in the application
 Opposite technology-wise:
 Different architectures, no signaling, no federation*, no interoperability
 Not just one box or service to deploy
 Enabler and exposure more important than closed service features
 Opposite culture-wise & approach-wise:
 No committee standardization, no defined UNI/NNI – but is somehow still works 
 Trial and error seems to do well in-small, no big investments/projects yet
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 12

13. HOW CAN OPERATORS BE ATTRACTIVE AROUND WEBRTC?
…NOT ONLY FOR DEVELOPERS, BUT AS GENERAL PARTNERS
 Don’t assume “build it and they will come” – WebRTC is for developers and they do not need operators
 At least not for real-time communications, that is one of the purposes of WebRTC
 Direct business innovation potential most likely with selected verticals
 Potential indirect business around WebRTC
 Hosting of real-time communication applications
 Local TURN server, demand for local low latency servers
 SIP trunk for WebRTC applications that require break-in to legacy domain
 Attractive and properly exposed assets may be used for technology partnerships
 WebRTC and API exposure go hand in hand
 Voice/SMS API, header enrichment, payment, identity, age verification etc.
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 13

14. PRACTICAL BACKUP
WE ARE DOOGFOODING
 Slovak Telekom has implemented a PoC not connected to legacy telephony, actively used by employees
 A WebRTC gateway RfQ on IMS and show telephony would be easy, but doesn’t have much value yet
 We developed a (simple but yet) contextual web application
 Sent E-mails contain signature to web portal (address built using E-mail as identifier), contact employees
 People can be contacted and also notified out-of-band using various channels, owner/guest not equal
 No telephony dial-out: Faster, easy b/c no legacy boundaries such as billing, integration, approval
 No complex account setup: Address confirmation using received hash/token for mapping
 No one-size-fits-all: Many features consciously omitted (directory, collaboration, conferencing)
 One application doing one thing well and which contains only those features required
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 14

15. SUMMARY
 Telecoms & WebRTC: Attractive opposites!
 To remain competitive, alternative approaches need to be embraced
 Faster innovation, trial and error
 Enable new business models with different cost models, new revenues!
 “WebRTC” is not one box/platform. It is not just some front-end to the IMS.
 Gateway/open-source/partnering/in-house development/vendor acc. your need
 For legacy services its more important to improve the service than just “add WebRTC”
 Focus on user’s needs & experience - technology driven services and features will not lead to success!
 WebRTC can be part of many new solutions, an ingredient. It is not THE solution, or A solution, though!
Sebastian Schumann: “Telecoms & WebRTC: Opposites Attract?”, WebRTC Summit Europe October 2014, Berlin, Germany 15

16. THANK YOU.
Sebastian Schumann
Application & Platform Innovation | Slovak Telekom, a.s.
 Sebastian.Schumann@telekom.sk
@s_schumann
 +421 903 419 345

17. ATTRIBUTION
Relationship designed by gilbert bages from the Noun Project
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