Telecoms industry ‘to lose up to €260bn’ in the next 10 years

The telecoms industry is in a period of huge upheaval that will see $300bn (€260bn) of revenue wiped from traditional telecoms across the world in the coming decade.

Network operators will have to evolve into entertainment and enterprise IT businesses with a strong focus on creating and owning content to remain relevant, an industry event has heard.

BT Ireland head of insight, innovation and policy Cathal O’Toole told the Telecommunications Graduate Initiative industry forum that the proliferation of over-the-top services such as Whatsapp has eaten into telecoms’ revenue streams and forced them to rethink their business.