Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners
The Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) market could be huge, but hasn’t yet taken off. We look at why, analysing leading telcos’ and others strategies to date (including DTAG, Orange, and Telefonica), and outline a strategy for how telcos could play a major role by solving some of the key problems.
We outline three potential roles for telcos in the IoT, describing twelve potential application areas and forty use cases, as well as the structure and trends driving change. Looking beyond this we ask which market areas are most attractive, and what should telcos do within them?
Some telcos are hoping that mobile data growth will resurge and transform their fortunes, though STL Partners has previously argued that data growth will not be enough. In this report we re-examine this argument looking at global trends and present the insights and lessons from six operator case-studies including DNA Finland, T-Mobile US and Reliance Jio.
VoLTE solves the complex problem of providing voice services over a 4G mobile data network. Although it may allow 2G and 3G networks to be turned off, and their spectrum re-farmed to other networks, declining call revenues (and in some cases declining volumes) are dampening appetite to invest in VoLTE. However, with voice beyond telephony on the rise, for example through AI-powered voice assistants and video calling, can telcos use VoLTE as an opportunity to develop new IP-based voice and messaging communications offerings?
The rapid growth of Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat and other Internet-based services has prompted some commentators to write off telcos in the consumer communications market. But many mobile operators retain surprisingly large voice and messaging businesses and still have several strategic options. Indeed, there is much telcos can learn from the leading Internet players’ evolving communications propositions and their attempts to integrate them into broad commerce and content platforms. In this report we examine what opportunities still exist for telcos in this strategically important sector.
The connected car market is being seen as one of the most promising segments of the Internet of Things. Everyone from telcos to internet giants Google, and specialist service providers Uber are eyeing opportunities in the sector. In this report we analyse 10 potential connected car use-cases to assess which ones could offer the biggest revenue opportunities for operators and outline the business case for investment. Our results are intriguing, and suggest that human use of data could be the largest telco opportunity in the autonomous car market.
Network Slicing is a way to run multiple networks on one infrastructure. In theory, it could mean that telcos could run mobile broadband and IoT networks over the same physical network, and also offer greater agility within those networks. We explore the theory and its challenges, examine use cases, what would be needed to make it happen, and look at five business case scenarios.
Mobile World Congress 2017 seemed busier and more diverse than ever – so congratulations to our partners at the GSMA. In previous years there has been an announcement or keynote that provides a unifying theme, but not so this year, although behind the scenes we identified a fundamental driving force. Our report of this year’s Congress analyses themes of transformation, 5G, IoT, AI and others, and distils the key messages from Barcelona.
Although the B2B market could deliver significant revenue growth, most telcos’ enterprise businesses are not delivering their full potential. In this report we analyse the reasons why and outline how telcos can build a successful B2B strategy.
Many telcos are trying to change, to become more agile and move from infrastructure- to software-led business models. But change is hard, especially because to be successful they need to adapt their culture and employee skill-sets which is a notoriously difficult task. In our latest report we analyse change strategies used by AT&T, Telkom Indonesia, and three other telcos in the context of insights from neuroscience, and show that change is possible with the right strategy and leadership.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is improving rapidly thanks to the growing use of deep neural networks to teach computers how to interpret the real world (deep learning). These networks use vast amounts of detailed data to enable machines to learn. What are the potential benefits for telcos, and what do they need to do to make this happen?
5G deployments will need new allocations of radio spectrum, particularly to achieve promised speeds, and target new IoT use-cases. However, the official process for releasing new frequencies is slow and cumbersome. Some countries may short-circuit the process. At the same time, the rationale for new sharing mechanisms, that allow industrial and vertical players to acquire spectrum for their own networks, outside of MNO control, is growing. What should telcos do?
Changing telcos’ systems from a legacy to a virtualised model is a bit like building an autonomous car from a moving steam locomotive. In this report, we look at the relationship between NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) and OSS (Operations Support Systems), and the difficulties that operators and the developer community are facing in migrating from legacy OSS to NFV-based methods for delivering and managing communications services.
Developing new digital services is a key growth strategy to make up for Voice revenue decline, but many telcos are struggling to implement it effectively. NTT DoCoMo has made more progress in digital services than any other operator, but is often dismissed as an example because Japan is considered “too different” to be useful for other operators. We disagree with this assumption and highlight key lessons that operators can learn from NTT DoCoMo’s digital journey.
The findings of a senior exec summit we ran last week in Asia present a fascinating snapshot of the global telecoms industry. They highlight views on the key goals of and barriers to transformation, and point to some key actions needed to move forward.
Global telecoms growth has slowed since 2009, but some operators have enjoyed compound annual growth rates of up to 25% over this period. This report examines the financial results of 68 operators over the last seven years, identifies seven successful growth strategies, and evaluates which ones will deliver the best results in 2017 and beyond.
Amazon, Facebook and Google are engaged in a global contest to become the pre-eminent broker of digital commerce between merchants and consumers. Google controls the leading digital platform – the Android smartphone. And Facebook dominates mobile messaging. But new digital platforms are emerging – the growing popularity of smart speakers, which rely on cloud-based artificial intelligence, could help Amazon, the original online chameleon, to bolster its fast-evolving ecosystem at the expense of Google and Facebook. As the digital food chain evolves, opportunities will open up for telcos, but only if the smart home market remains heterogeneous and very competitive.
Our research focuses on how telcos and their partners can embrace industry disruption.
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