I have just returned from Aruba where I attended CANTO‘s annual conference. Yes, a business trip to Aruba—friends and family had trouble comprehending that fact. So while the setting was quite beautiful with azure water lapping at the convention center doors, you can take some solace in the fact that I was wearing a jacket and tie in 90-degree Caribbean heat. It was a fantastic experience nonetheless.
Bringing together government ministries, leading fixed and mobile service providers and the vendor community, CANTO’s annual event is a vibrant affair that aims to share the latest technology and case studies to push telecommunications and broadband forward in the Caribbean. This year’s theme was “Towards a SMART Broadband Caribbean Community.”
While the sun was shining and the beach beckoned, I was talking about clouds. On a panel session covering various cloud technologies and trends, I spoke about cloud voice platforms. We believe the combination of challenging market dynamics (declining margins due to competition and a change in usage patterns due to mobile and social media) along with the focus on broadband means that service providers should rethink their voice delivery options. Cloud voice platforms are a turnkey voice solution allowing service providers to cloud source VoIP instead of building and running a network. Leveraging a SaaS-based model aligns costs with service uptake providing a clear business case and maximizing gross margins for voice services. You can download my presentation from SlideShare.
There were also sessions on broadband initiatives, monetizing LTE, regulatory landscape, big data and partnership models. Between the conference agenda, numerous networking opportunities and the exhibition space, the ways to explore best practices and technology were abundant. With a largely fullly competitive market, over 30 million mobile subscribers and investments in LTE, satellite and fixed broadband, we are excited about the potential that the cloud voice platform has to offering in driving connectivity across the Caribbean region.
photo by: Serge Melki