Steve Flavell, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, LoopUp, on multinational enterprises streamlining their communications by shifting from fragmented regional telecoms to unified, cloud-based, UC-integrated global providers.
As enterprises increasingly manage their unified communications (UC) platforms on a global basis, why are they still procuring and managing telecommunications services on a country-specific or regional basis? Wouldn’t it make sense to unify management of all communications globally rather than persisting with outdated, inconsistent and disparate telecoms models?
The reason lies in the legacy – and in many cases current – business models and strategic choices of traditional telecom providers. The solution? A new generation of multinational cloud telephony providers offering a streamlined global alternative.
Telecoms: the post-pandemic shift
Since the pandemic, the telecommunications industry has been restructuring at pace to serve the demands of remote and hybrid workplaces. The big telcos may have led the first wave of restructuring but were far less eager to join the second, and their broader business models are not well suited to the third.
From on the ground to in the cloud
To be fair, the big telcos were at the forefront of the first restructuring: the shift from on-premises implementations to cloud-based services. Telecoms became just another form of data delivered over fibre and 4G/5G broadband networks they themselves provided. This aligned perfectly with their role as network operators.
Moving services to the cloud enabled users to make and receive calls wherever they had internet access – at work, at home or on the move. Phone numbers travelled with them instead of being tied to a desk or location. Enterprises also removed legacy switches and equipment, cutting the cost and complexity of upgrades and replacements.
The rationale was so strong that 71% of the telecoms market had shifted to the cloud by 2024.
From standalone to globally connected
The second restructuring was less comfortable for big telcos but became inevitable due to customer demand: integrating telephony into UC platforms such as Microsoft Teams.
Teams offers rich features – messaging, channels, meetings and video calls – but telephony requires additional integration. More companies now pursue this integration to achieve truly unified communications, improving both user experience and IT management. It also means telephony content can be included in AI data sets for tools such as Copilot.
Initially, big telcos resisted. Much of the value add came from Microsoft’s cloud “Phone System” functionality, monetised through license extensions that reduced telco margins. But customer demand prevailed. Today, more than 100 telcos have joined Microsoft’s Operator Connect and Direct Routing programmes.
From one locality to all
The third restructuring is now accelerating among multinationals. Until recently, enterprises relied on multiple regional telco vendors, each with its own contracts, tariffs, portals, support services and invoices.
But when enterprises manage Teams globally, why keep a patchwork of regional vendors? They want their telephony integrated with UC platforms and managed consistently worldwide. Why juggle dozens of vendors when one global provider can do it all?
The new breed of multinational cloud telephony providers
Global service provision remains misaligned with big telcos, whose operations are rooted in broadband delivery. What used to be copper wires for telecoms is now fibre for broadband, but the physical “last mile” connections don’t scale globally.
This limitation, combined with the vast opportunity in Microsoft Teams telephony and the strong business case for vendor consolidation, has paved the way for a new breed of multinational cloud telephony providers.
These providers deliver across all three dimensions of innovation: cloud infrastructure, seamless UC integration and global service coverage. With a single global vendor, multinationals can avoid inefficiencies, wasted resources and fragmented management. Instead, they gain one global contract, one global tariff and one global portal – finally, truly unified communications.
