M1 hiring people to think for machines

BUILDING networks for machines, not humans, will be the challenge of the future for telecommunications players, according to M1's chief technical officer Denis Seek.

"Operators are so familiar with designing a network for humans. But machines don't know how to complain, and machines have no downtime," he said. "The network investment is going to be very different. I'm going to build virtualised networks. I have to build a cloud-based network. I have to build a network that also cannot sleep."

Mr Seek's example of serving a smart factory hooked up to the Internet of Things (IoT) points to how M1 - Singapore's smallest listed telco by market value, historically known for its consumer mobile focus - has been stepping on the pedal in the industrywide pivot to enterprise business.