In just three years, Lutz Schüler has become one of the most influential figures in the UK telecoms industry. He joined Virgin Media as chief operating officer in August 2018, became chief executive within 11 months and, less than a year later, announced the company would merge with O2. Schüler was the person appointed to lead the combined entity and spearhead its bid to become a communications giant capable of challenging BT-EE in the mobile, fixed and converged markets. Speaking at Connected Britain 2021 in London, he admits the first 100 days have been difficult but is optimistic after a positive second quarter and is now ready to build a "big starting position" and fund €10bn to invest in networks and services. . “We want to reinvent connectivity and I think the timing is perfect,” he says. “We all know that connectivity is important, but it had become a commodity. We have an opportunity again as an industry. " Virgin Media O2 plans to complete the rollout of 1 Gbps broadband across all of its 15.5 million fixed footprints by the end of the year and plans to roll out fiber optics across its entire network by 2028. At the same time, it wants to achieve 50% coverage of the population. with 5G. "Competition is great for the country, so we won't sit idly by," he adds. "We want to maintain our leadership in speed. " However, Schüler also reiterates the view of many that consumers They don't care about the technology, just the experience. That's why he's convinced that converged services that focus on results rather than network metrics are the way to go. “Rethinking connectivity is an opportunity to create value, not only in infrastructure, but also in products and services,” he explains. It's all about convergence. We believe that people want fast, reliable and seamless connectivity. “5G and fiber are just discussions about technology. Nobody tells me in the pub 'I have fiber'. They just say, "I'm with this carrier and either I have great service or I don't have great service." Consumers are not lining up outside our stores for 5G, but because they want access to the content and apps they want.
(Image credit: Virgin Media O2)
"Reinvent" connectivity
An urgent priority for Schüler is to maintain the business momentum after the merger. New services and strong brands are two ways he wants to do that: "When you do big integration, a lot of times you internalize and lose sight of the market. We have to make sure we grow. "We have two strong brands and I think we have the same roots in Virgin Media and O2 We offer the fastest broadband and most reliable mobile network We are a power couple and we have to fit together the right way “A happy team means happy customers who spend more money which makes customers happy shareholders, who then invest more money. It's the golden circle. Digitization and better use of data will be key to attracting and retaining customers and entering new markets. In the 1990s, he said that telecom operators were the " kings" of innovation, but which had since been superseded by the tech industry. But as part of this "reinvention" of connectivity, he believes next-generation networks, data analytics and a favorable regulatory environment will turn the tide. of the industry, allowing you to leverage revenue that has been confiscated for profit. Consumer applications, content providers and cloud platforms. .
Challenging spirit
Above all, Schüler wants to make sure customers are "excited" about what's to come from Virgin Media O2 to make it more relevant. Relevance, he suggests, will become an even greater barometer of success than average revenue per user (ARPU). The focus will also be on the B2B market, a segment where he believes Virgin Media and O2 have failed to realize their potential. Schüler may be a fresh face to those outside of the UK industry, but he is far from a newcomer. His career in telecoms spans three decades and, in fact, he was part of the team that introduced the O2 brand to Germany in the early 2000s. Despite his role in the biggest merger ever in the UK telecom space United and building a communications giant with 47 million connections and a 40% convergence rate, Schüler believes his challenging roots will come in handy. In fact, the challenger's ethics even influence his choice of the soccer team: “I live in London, but I also live in Munich. I hate Bayern Munich. I support Borussia Dortmund because they are challenging Bayern… which is sponsored by Deutsche Telekom.