For telecom execs facing OPEX pressure, consolidation headaches, and board demands for faster revenue growth, TCW LIVE 2025 wasn’t about buzz. It was about what works.
This year’s event delivered a gut check for telecom, fiber, and infrastructure leaders navigating transformation, market expansion, and AI disruption at the same time.
From data strategy to AI that scales, here are five big takeaways that mattered most. No fluff. Just moves you can make.
1. Your Data Strategy Is Either Fuel or Friction
If you’re still pulling broad lists from ZoomInfo, you’re doing it wrong.
Every panel, smackdown, and executive insight at TCW LIVE pointed back to one reality: Data is only gold if it’s refined, activated, and aimed at the right target.
- TAM data isn’t just for network planning. It should drive segmentation, pricing, campaigns, and partner strategy.
- Uniti emphasized the need for clean, unified data post-merger.
- Ciena shared how they leverage partner platforms to extend marketing impact without owning the data directly.
Actionable Take:
Go beyond list-pulling. Start segmenting:
- Look at competitive density, anchor tenants, and near-net value.
- Use your TAM to monetize what you already have, not just to plan where you might go.
What to do next:
Audit your current data strategy. Are you using TAM data to inform every function — sales, marketing, product? If not, you’re leaving revenue on the table.
2. AI Won’t Replace You—But It Will Change Your Workflow
AI was the elephant in every room, but not in the usual way. TCW LIVE cut through the hype with real use cases driving impact.
- Covington Place Partners’ AI advisory team showed how they’re helping Connectbase build AI agents that reduce onboarding from weeks to hours.
- Access Marketing’s Joy Milkowski highlighted how Intenti.co AI writes brand-compliant outreach using real-time triggers from earnings calls, leadership changes, and more.
Key Insight:
AI isn’t a strategy. It’s an amplifier. It scales what works and it reveals what doesn’t. AI is a magnifier that exposes where judgment still matters and how human-dependent decisions will always be critical.
What to do next:
Identify one repetitive, slow process. Test an AI agent there. Then track time saved, accuracy, and outcomes. Start with the use case. Not the tool.
3. Marketing Is Infrastructure Now
Perhaps now more than ever, marketing can’t be viewed as overhead. Instead, it’s a value lever. And in telecom, it’s finally getting treated that way.
Ciena’s partner model was a standout: they provide marketing-as-a-service to partners based on projected opportunity, not past purchases. It’s a future-focused model with AMC helping partners go to market smarter.
That’s a blueprint.
Growth-minded providers are:
- Planning campaigns with the same rigor as networks: repeatable, scalable, trackable.
- Using TAM data to drive market-ready offers.
- Partnering with agencies who understand fiber and infrastructure, not just design trends.
What to do next:
Rethink marketing as infrastructure. If your campaigns aren’t engineered for growth the way your routes are, it’s time to take a fresh look.
4. Virginia Is Building the Blueprint for the Next Global Internet Hub
Virginia isn’t just scaling; it’s setting the standard.
With over 600 data centers, $100B+ in investment, and global subsea cable connections in motion, the region is modeling what connectivity + sustainability + public-private alignment can look like.
- New IX points and renewable-powered campuses are changing the game.
- Sandbridge is becoming the new edge.
- The goal: make Virginia the global best practice by 2035.
Why it matters:
Even if you don’t operate in Virginia, this is a signal. What’s happening there will shape expectations and infrastructure strategies across the country.
What to do next:
Get ahead by aligning with similar playbooks: form public-private partnerships, prep your sustainability narrative, and understand the backhaul buildouts already influencing your market.
5. Spray-and-Pray Is Dead. Segmentation Is the New Superpower.
Generic outreach isn’t lazy. It’s expensive.
Joy’s “Data Smackdown” session called out what everyone in the room already felt:
- Too much recycled, AI-generated noise
- Too few real campaign strategies
- Value props that read like everyone else’s
Her fix:
- Segment by industry, density, and fiber proximity
- Tailor the narrative to the moment
- Replace claims with real stories
Example campaigns:
- A fiber pitch for hospitals with redundant power needs
- A financial services campaign tied to earnings call cycles
- A verticalized message for greenfield developers in fiber deserts
What to do next:
Pick one high-value segment. Map the top 5 pain points. Build a message that speaks directly to them, not everyone else.
Final Thoughts: Less Noise. More Signal.
What is the Data Smackdown session about?
A high-energy TCW LIVE session where AMC shows how to apply Connectbase TAM data to beat telecom’s biggest challenges.Who should attend Joy Milkowski’s talk?
Telecom sales, marketing, and strategy leaders who want practical tactics to accelerate growth.How does AMC use Connectbase data?
AMC applies TAM insights to sharpen targeting, streamline RFPs, and improve sales velocity.
