GENEVA -- "We used to say that 3G stood for games, gambling and girls. But today it means greed, gullibility and guilt," said Ewan Sutherland, executive director of the International Telecommunications Users Group during the "Satisfying the Customer" session, a panel debate organised by the ITU at its TELECOM WORLD event.

The talk featured CEOs John T. Chambers of Cisco; Arun Sarin of Vodafone; Masanobu Suzuki of NTT Communications Corporation and Royston Hoggarth of Cable & Wireless.

Sutherland's comments elicited the most laughs during discussions but they perhaps most poignantly illustrate subscriber frustration with overlapping, complex and spotty telecommunications coverage. The packed room, however, reflected the industry's obsession with getting customer's needs right this round, after the 3G slow start-up, in a challenging pricing environment.

Above all, speakers agreed that just meeting customers' needs is no longer enough. Companies, which are increasingly becoming service providers, even in the equipment area, need to exceed customer expectations, learn their clients' business from the ground up, protect their networks, provide seamless interoperability, identify and assess risks, drill down into micro-segments to customize solutions, and shift quickly to new business models and services to survive, panelists said.

Arun Sarin said: "We've raised the bar on service. We need to delight our customers, noting the companies focus on new markets, like infotainment. We're investing several billion pounds a year in 3G, but we won't open service until we can outperform 2G. Unless we can delight our customers there's little incentive to migrate to 3G." He, like Masanobu Suzuki, also plugged 3G.

Indeed, unrealistic assumptions about customers' telecommunications needs helped drive the sector's downturn, they said. All the din about new, exciting technologies drowned out the customers voice. Earning back that trust and listening to the customer's requirements today rather than pushing new sexy services for tomorrow are critical if we are to move ahead and spur growth, panelists said.

John Chambers, who kicked off the session, spoke to the need of large corporations to be nimble and quick, anticipating changes well before they arrive.

He said: "Listening to customers and getting transitions right will decide which companies are around in ten years. People used to buy equipment based on feeds and speeds. But we increasingly need to be service, not just parts oriented. The customers will tell you what they need."

Sarin stressed the need to very finely segment the customer base, to evaluate and tailor packages, be they for students, small businesses or government officials communicating from laptops, palm pilots or mobile phones.

"What is it they need using our infrastructure, channels, and at exactly what price point?" Delighting customers is the best way to delight shareholders," he added.

Royston Hoggarth from Cable & Wireless said that in the enterprise space, companies will look to equipment and service providers to understand their business and assess risks early on. He also noted the proliferation of small- to medium-sized businesses that have different requirements from large corporations.

"Our companies are asking us to manage all aspects of their business - not just technology," he explained. "Unless we can speak their language we will never deliver on their business processes. We need to be clear about what we stand for and what we're prepared to do."

The challenge of providing such superior services at lower costs, as equipment and service provision prices drop was a primary preoccupation among panelists. Companies will increasingly make their money on innovative value-added services, they said.

Sutherland said: "We're approaching free telephony. I'm expecting prices to go down and services to go up. People will be paying very little for great service."

Security and privacy are top of mind to customers, too, and must be integrated into customer offerings, said NTT Communications Corporation Masanobu Suzuki. Viruses and information leaks are also a key concern.

"Prevention of hacking, and the protection of networks from malicious attacks is our most important duty as a telephone carrier," he said. "We also need to provide seamless services to end users."

Panelists closed the session on words about an industry that lost its way in the race to deliver services before applications or customers were ready and the need to quickly shift to more responsive and value-generating business models.

"We need to create an environment that adjusts to change," said Chambers. That will determine tomorrow's winners and losers."

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