Connectivity as a Service: automation powered by Kosc Telecom
Big Interview

Connectivity as a Service: automation powered by Kosc Telecom

Antoine Fournier - Kosc Telecom.jpg

Antoine Fournier, CEO of Kosc Telecom, the French wholesale-only CaaS provider, talks to Capacity about how Connectivity as a Service (CaaS) is the future of our telecom industry

What makes Kosc Telecom unique as a connectivity provider? 

Created in March 2016, Kosc Telecom provides nationwide local access solutions to carriers with real-time CaaS management tools. Our network is powered by a state-of-the-art broadband and fibre-optic infrastructure, connecting over 180 cities. CaaS is a whole new way of looking at business activity and is at the core of our strategy. This is a big undertaking – but thanks to a fully integrated and automated e-portal available through web services (extranet & APIs), we can offer this Connectivity as a Service solution. Simply put, we have virtualised our network for our customers and they can have full control of it, from eligibility checking to ticketing, in just one user interface. Our motto is to help our customers drive their business into the digital era!

What are the key challenges in the carrier market and how is Kosc Telecom preparing to tackle them?

Automation is one of the key challenges. In these times of digitisation, our industry must transform itself to get agile and customer-centric. No one can sell digital transformation to its customers, if one hasn’t been through this transformation!

We first started to design our information system from scratch, and then we built our network around a digital platform: CaaS e-Portal. Through it, we are offering innovative services to the wholesale business market that are reliable, transparent and easy to use. Thus, operations are modernised to get the best customer return on experience.

Another key challenge is the advent of new hyper-specialised actors on the market: wholesale-only carriers are now bringing a new high-feature and cost-effective model for investment in very high bandwidth, with fibre. In addition, as a wholesale-only carrier, we don’t and won’t ever compete with our customers. Our focus is to partner with B2B carriers, helping them to win more deals and keep on growing their business. For this purpose, we have designed a competitive portfolio of data Layer 1 and Layer 2 services, with unprecedented offers in France. From these data services, our customers can build innovative value-added services.

What are your strategic priorities for 2018?

We have announced a brand new wholesale fibre portfolio to cover all the connectivity needs in France. For the very first time, a wholesale fibre complete portfolio dedicated to businesses is now available in France. We are now accepting orders for our best effort fibre services and we are launching E-Access fibre, which is a complementary offer with SLAs. Best effort fibre already brings a breakthrough with bandwidth up to 1Gbps download and 250Mbps upload – and now with e-access fibre we will also ensure guaranteed symmetrical bandwidth. As a driver on the wholesale telecom market, our ambition is to pave the way for full fibre migration.

Beside the fibre offer itself, we are offering the ability to connect businesses wherever they are located, not only in the major cities, like Paris, Lyon or Marseille. In fact, one of our strategic priorities for 2018 and the coming years is to keep extending our 7.6 million fibre plug coverage.

How is Kosc Telecom growing its footprint outside its domestic market?

Our strategy is to stay focused on wholesale and connectivity only on one hand and on local access coverage on the other hand. Regarding coverage, Kosc Telecom has one main goal: complete a 100% coverage in France to provide the best available connectivity portfolio for all premises located in France.

What would be your tips for global carriers which are looking for connectivity in France? 

Automation is a must-have to drive telecoms business worldwide. Through our CaaS e-Portal, we are glad to offer a relevant wholesale portfolio, with a nationwide coverage, manageable from a unique interface, to global carriers. Checking the eligibility, drafting and placing orders, tracking the service delivery status, launching diagnosis and accessing our 24/7 customer service has never been easier. Our CaaS solution is designed to be compliant with the proof of concepts for the development of MEF 3.0 services. Thus, it is easy to integrate within any carrier’s information system through our APIs. 

Finally, international carriers all have a common denominator:the need for simplicity, reactivity and flexibility to aim for network on demand. Dedicated to wholesale-only connectivity on the French wholesale market, Kosc Telecom is a human-sized company that perfectly matches these needs. So, why not improve your supplier portfolio by choosing the French wholesale-only CaaS provider? 

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