Telecoms could prove to be a "bottleneck" for innovation and the sector needs "a Michael O'Leary or a Ryanair" to bring a "disruptive approach" to the area, according to Martin Curley, director of Intel's European R&D labs.
He was speaking yesterday at the opening of the three-day Future Internet Assembly (FIA) being held in DCU's Helix venue.
During the FIA event, which runs until tomorrow, European delegates are discussing how to maintain competitiveness in the internet marketplace in Europe while meeting societal, business and technology ambitions.
Weighing in on the telecoms discussion, Yrjo Neuvo, director of Finland's University of Aalto and former Nokia CTO, said that roaming charges and the very concept of phone numbers may be holding back ICT development.
Backing an “IP-based system” with no phone numbers, Mr Neuvo said: “Why does it cost to cross a border, there’s no technical reason for this,” especially when the internet is “borderless”.
However, chief science officer and vice-president with Docomo Communications Labs Europe, Hendrik Berndt, poured cold water on the idea saying telecoms is a "global business" in need of "standards".
Looking beyond the age of 4G, Mr Neuvo also asked whether his former employers, alongside Motorola, Alacatel Lucent and other telecoms companies, should really be "leading innovation" when it comes to development of "5G and 6G networks" considering undoubted vested interests in the industry.
The FIA event is also covering topics such as the potential of wireless and wired networks, how to boost the “app economy”, linking everyday internet users to research programs, open data, mobile gaming in the cloud and making the future internet secure.
Innovation framework
The organisation itself is a "research community driven" initiative aiming to create more effective exploitation of EU-based future internet (which refers to new architectures for the worldwide web) research from both industry and academia, with 150 projects currently under its banner, of which 40 of those are on show during the TSSG event at DCU.
Minister of State for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, opened the event, saying while he and other policy makers are “not necessarily tuned up on exact technicalities” involved in the research going on within the FIA, the Irish EU presidency is “very determined” to work on gaining agreement at political level for the direction of the Horizon 2020 innovation framework during the next few months.
Set to begin on January 1st next year, Horizon 2020 will see about €70 billion pumped into research and innovation which is vital for “stimulus and growth” around Europe, according to Sherlock.
Zoran Stancic, who works with the European Commission as deputy director-general of DG Connect, which manages the EU's digital agenda, said that while the Horizon 2020 budget is "less than what we wanted" the investment in ICT within that total – which comes to €16 billion – can help to create "competitive, sustainable and inclusive growth".
Best results
Mr Sherlock also told delegates that on a national level the Irish government has taken a decision to "maximise the outputs of research" that create new opportunities for jobs.
However, during a presentation later in the day, Thierry van Landegem , vice president for global operations with communications giant Alcatel Lucent's research arm Bell Labs, warned against governments "giving universities KPIs" and asking for "X amount of patents", with University of Aalto's Yrjo Neuvo agreeing this may not be an approach that gains the best results possible from academic researchers.
