Treasury Strategy & Transformation
Published  9 MIN READ

A Great Connection: Telco Treasuries Set a Shining Digital Example

The telecommunications sector has played an instrumental role in supporting organisations with the transformational shift to remote working. It has also helped ensure continued access to digital financial services to people via traditional banking and alternative payment methods during the pandemic. Telco treasurers operate in a highly acquisitive sector that requires regular financing to support investments in the latest communications technology. As a result, high levels of efficiency are critical for the telco treasurer, and there are many lessons that treasury teams in other sectors may find useful.

Telecommunications companies, known as telcos, played a critical role during the height of the pandemic in enabling business to continue despite a global lockdown. Homeworkers leveraged their personal telco services more than ever to access business-critical systems, while remote learning became the norm for schoolchildren and university students. As countries prepare to return to some level of ‘normality’, flexible working will still be an option for many, which means that telcos will need to maintain and enhance the infrastructure to support this societal shift.

James Lee, Technology and Communications Sector Sales Head for EMEA, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi, comments: “Clearly the pandemic has accelerated the need for telcos to invest in and create innovative offerings around 5G”. The investment here is by no means insignificant. Estimates from the US suggest that installing and rolling out a 5G non-standalone Evolved Packet Core for up to 50,000 subscribers costs telcos anywhere from $250,000 to $1.2m [1].

James Lee
Technology and Communications Sector Sales Head for EMEA, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi