BT Pembroke Lecture 2021 - From the laboratory to the balance sheet: Harnessing discovery-led research for breakthrough commercial success
Loonshots are new products or technologies that nobody thinks will work. Defined by Safi Bahcall, a loonshot is seen as so crazy and unrealistic that even a moonshot looks sensible. Most organisations would be terrified by loonshots, but Trevor Linney, Openreach Research Director, used the 2021 BT-Pembroke Lecture to describe how BT harnesses the power of discovery-led research - taking the fantastic academic work done in Cambridge and in universities across the country and translating it into something that creates a unique capability for BT as a company and for the UK.
Picking up from the Purposeful Innovation theme introduced by Tim Whitley in the 2018 Lecture and John Beswick in the 2019 Lecture, Trevor described the ‘trinity’ model whereby BT applies brand-new science with real-world engineering to create a unique and differentiated service that provides a sustained market advantage, not only in the UK but also globally.
Trevor took us on a journey through the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). These progress a fundamental principle through various stages until it reaches proof-of-concept and beyond to market production and operational deployment. However, the default model uses collaboration with other companies to set volume and price points and enable global roll-out of a product. This is a “beautiful model” that gives early-mover advantage but without substantial differentiation - leading to a minimal return as others are able to quickly implement similar products.
At this point, Trevor introduced the concept of loonshots – crazy ideas that require the serendipitous combination of technologies, business models and external factors to transform the world. We have often heard about a ‘solution looking for a problem’, but Trevor provided examples of how our lives are now improved by ‘crazy’ products that people said weren’t going to work – including Amazon developing Kindles, Apple creating the iPhone, Tesla electric cars and LG persisting with OLED screen technology.
Trevor then played the sound of a dial-up modem as an introduction to the beginnings of broadband and his early role at BT to encourage customers of its benefits. Many people then were happy with their dial-up modem, but now we recognise how times have changed in a relatively short period. Openreach now has over 16 million customers and the platform spans nearly 30 million homes, and we have come to rely on our internet connectivity even more during the pandemic.
BT’s approach to harnessing the power of discovery-led research is to look at new theories and developments that could be utilised in a telecommunications use-case – Trevor termed this as ‘hunting for network unicorns’. BT uses network physics and breakthrough prototyping to help stakeholders believe in a new technology and thus provide the company with a sustained advantage by developing world-changing technologies.
Trevor provided some specific examples of research from the BT labs, including investigating using surface waves, Rydberg sensors, robotics, low-cost coherent optics and quantum distribution. He explained and explored in more depth BT’s research using Rydberg sensors to receive radio frequency signals with lasers, and in deploying mole-like robots to deploy fibre cables. This taps into and benefits from the innovation ecosystem ‘Innovation Martlesham’, a community of high-tech SMEs and start-ups that BT has developed at Adastral Park in Suffolk.
In conclusion, Trevor posited that being able to translate discovery-led research is helping BT to develop truly transformational and unique products and technologies, and that their applied research is the catalyst to commercial success.
William Pitt Fellow for BT, Tim Whitley, expertly chaired the lively Q and A session that followed, including some very interested and engaged questions from the audience in the Old Library and those watching online. Our first hybrid BT-Pembroke Lecture was a useful learning exercise, both in terms of event delivery and in the subject presented by Trevor, and we hope that this format will continue and allow us to enable diverse audience participation.
Trevor Linney is a Research Director at BT labs responsible for Openreach’s applied research and Networks Physics programmes. This includes leading teams investigating the fundamental physics of communications, new transmission systems, new access architectures and robotics for deploying full fibre (FTTP). Joining BT as a physics graduate, Trevor has spent most of his career improving the speed of the UK’s broadband infrastructure starting with 500kbps ADSL all the way to multi-gigabit full fibre, acquiring a masters degree in Telecommunications and numerous patents along the way. Trevor is a Chartered Engineer, a member of the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Network (SAN) Group and the IET. He is also co-vice chair of the UK NICC’s Technical Steering Group.