Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners
Telcos and the major Internet platforms increasingly rely on each other. What kinds of agreements should operators enter into with Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google and what should they avoid? And what are the strategic implications of supporting players who habitually use their powerful brands and software expertise to disrupt entire industries?
With Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), telcos can move workloads and applications closer to customers, potentially enhancing experiences and enabling a plethora of new use cases. But with competition looming from other players, telcos need to start commercialising MEC. We have identified and modelled five viable telco business models.
Telcos can draw ten lessons around organisational structure, strategy and staying relevant with customers from AccorHotels’ rapid digital transformation. This is the second in our series of transformation case studies from outside the telecoms sector.
Veon (rebranded VimpelCom) has embarked upon a bold strategy, shedding its network to move from being a traditional telco business to an agile consumer IP communications platform. We analyse its new strategy, its risks, and what it will need to do to succeed.
Big data analytics could help telcos improve performance, rebuild revenues and regain relevance with consumers, but it is not a quick fix. This report looks at what telcos have done in this area so far and what they need to do next.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is more powerful and affordable than ever, and the leading consumer-facing AI platforms – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – are in an arms race to bring the technology to smartphones. AI will radically change the way people use smartphones, but what are the implications for data traffic and consumer expectations, and what role should telcos play in this evolution?
Our research into 47 global operators reveals divergence in telcos’ levels of digital customer engagement. In this report, we examine three strategies that emerge (Digital Nascent, Multichannel and Omnichannel) and the key factors for success, drawing on lessons from case studies in banking, retail and hospitality.
The music industry was one of the first sectors to be fundamentally disrupted by the Internet. Facing an epic and almost existential battle with piracy, coupled with expectations that music should be free, the record labels have tested many different business and distribution models. With sales of recorded music finally growing again, telcos and their partners can learn a lot from the music industry’s hits and misses.
STL Partners has compiled a new quarterly-updated tracker service of commercial deployments of NFV and SDN by leading telcos worldwide, providing an Excel database accompanied by an analytical report. The first update, devoted to Europe, found operators and vendors focusing on core network virtualisation and SDN/SD-WAN have so far led the way, as timelines on more systematic transformation programmes have been extended.
Facebook set up the Telecom Infra Project in 2016 to drive open source standards in core telecoms hardware and network operations. In this report we examine the implications of this project for telcos and other industry players, and recommend how they should respond.
M&A is a key tool in building digital businesses, but is the telco sector investing enough? We examine the key drivers and barriers to telco digital M&A strategies, comparing investment levels to other verticals, and compare and contrast M&A activity with our previous findings.
Healthcare is an attractive vertical for telcos to address with digital solutions, given the sector’s low digital base and rising demand for healthcare services from ageing populations and changing lifestyles. Although many telcos have made attempts to capture this opportunity through telehealth or consumer wellness services, TELUS stands out as an example of the value of a long-term commitment to healthcare. In this case study, we examine TELUS’ strategy in health, evidence of its success, and draw out lessons for other telcos.
The big prize in enterprise managed services today is supporting industries’ digital transformation. With the growing ‘softwarisation’ of networking, this creates more impetus for vendors to compete with telcos as part of a shifting ecosystem. But does vendor software risk cannibalising the telco network?
Building a telco based on ‘free’ open source software is theoretically highly attractive to telcos, particularly those looking to increase their control over innovation and differentiation, and/or where cost reduction is critical. This report looks at how to address the challenges, identifies practical options and choices, and how, when and why to go about open source transformation in the real world.
Blockchain has attracted a lot of hype, but what is it actually useful for? In this report and follow-up webinar, we discuss blockchain’s strengths and weaknesses as a tool to solve business problems. The report identifies seven high potential use-cases where telcos could use blockchain to cut costs and support new services, and outlines which are most likely to be implemented first and why.
In our first analysis on 4G take-up in Europe, we found common success factors relating to how operators had rolled out their networks. In our latest analysis, looking at 30 countries in the APAC region, we identify what market characteristics drive or inhibit 4G adoption, and which countries are likely to grow fast now and why.
MEC (Mobile / Multi-Access Edge Computing) puts compute resources at the edge of telco networks. These servers can be used for distributing internal network functions – typically linked with NFV deployments – or made available to third-party developers as part of an “edge cloud” service offering. What are the realistic use cases, and can telcos monetise them?
Our research focuses on how telcos and their partners can embrace industry disruption.
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