Altice Labs celebrated its 2nd anniversary on the 23rd February. During the event, which was held in Aveiro, several statistics of the company’s growth were presented and some projects of national and international prominence were revealed.
In Aveiro, the moment was celebrated with a full house. “We are celebrating the 2nd anniversary with a sense of accomplishment”, admits Alexandre Fonseca, Executive President of Altice Portugal. “Mission accomplished because, for us, the innovation component is in our DNA”, he emphasized, also noting the importance of innovation in the development of Portugal, as stressed last week by Prime Minister António Costa.
“2017 was an intense and extraordinary year in which we took even more technology made in Portugal, made in Altice Labs, to the Altice group”, admits Alcino Lavrador. Looking at the numbers, the general director of Altice Labs recalls that from 2 projects in January 2016, the innovation hub went on to secure 17 projects for the group, in January of the following year, and, in January of this year, to guarantee 39. “It effectively shows our consolidation in the group. A group that has put a lot of expectations in us”. These expectations have been surpassed. “There is a recognition of portuguese engineering. And portuguese engineering is not only the engineering that is at Altice Labs, it is also the engineering of our partners, our research centers, the universities”.
Alcino Lavrador, who made a balance of 2017, recalls that 250 million people worldwide already connect with portuguese technology and that “60% of the business is done internationally”. He underlines the support of the current administration of Altice Portugal and shareholders. “I’ve never felt such support”, he confesses.
Decentralization of innovation poles
In order to boost the local technological ecosystem and create the conditions for the birth of innovative solutions and cutting-edge technology, Altice Labs has been creating innovation poles in several regions of the country. These poles are, in essence, an extension of Altice Labs itself and position these regions as a lever for talent attraction, knowledge and innovation export. Therefore, after Madeira (Brava Valley pioneering project), Viseu and Olhão, there will be a new decentralization in the future.
Alexandre Fonseca affirms that these decentralizations are strategic, because “they are projects developed in close cooperation with the municipalities of Viseu and Olhão and with the Regional Government of Madeira, with great success in the territory. It is this success that we intend to reproduce briefly. We want to take Altice Labs further by taking risky but certain steps to fulfill the goal of projects and brain gain, as well as creating synergies in the growth of startups”.
Altice Labs and ECO partnership
The celebration day was also marked by the testimony of an example of how innovation made in Altice Labs can contribute to the growth of the digital society – the technological partnership between Altice Labs and the ECO newspaper. Through this partnership, Altice Labs makes available its technical know-how of computer / digital development to this medium of communication, in the sense of developing and launching new formats, new functionalities and new services.
“The ECO was born just over a year and three months ago and its mission is to inform, add value, help the decision. But we had a very clear notion that technology was fundamental for ECO to be a success and for it to be affirmed from the point of view of its relevance”, says António Costa, director of ECO. It is in this sense that this partnership was formed. “We believe that journalism is not done without a very strong technological development and without a permanent innovation capacity. Good news is not enough. You have to reach the readers”, he confesses. Hence this joint challenge with Altice Labs.
Growing projects
Areas related to networking, including the evolution of fiber optics, Cloud, Internet of Things, and Big Data are on the innovation radar of Altice Labs, but with an eye on the evolution of network technology and IT, where Altice Group also wants to mark its position.
Altice Labs demonstrated several projects under development at Future Labs, a space inaugurated last year and open to innovation. Avatar 3D, SIX-Altice Labs@UA and SmartAL are some of the examples, but one of the highlights is also the 5G Mobilizer where Altice leads a consortium and has been gaining consistency in the development and validation of integration technology with the 5G radio network, which should start until 2025.
Alcino Lavrador highlights the importance that Future Labs has as a collaboration tool with various entities and to stimulate creativity within Altice Labs. “It’s a space where we also learn and use our creativity”, he says.
View all the photos of Altice Labs 2nd anniversary.