MWC 2016: IoT & Enterprise
What was hot at MWC? We round up the action around enterprise IT and the Internet of Things.
Research
Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners
Telefónica’s NFV: An Empire Divided?
In this analysis we examine the background and trajectory of Telefónica’s high-profile NFV program, how it may evolve, and the implications for other operators on or considering the journey.
Innovation Leaders: Iliad – A Disruptive Operator Tackles The Cloud
Free has won market share and customer plaudits alike with its disruptive and original strategy in the French telecoms market. Its parent company Iliad has now developed an ingenious strategy for cloud. Our latest report shows how, and highlights lessons for all operators with ambitions to be more than a ‘pipe’.
4G Roll Out Analysis: Winning Strategies and 5G Implications
As LTE adoption passes 50% in North America and 9% worldwide, we review the operators who did best and worst and draw conclusions for the mass adoption phase of 4G. The analysis provides a valuable template for all players in the 4G race, and has important implications for plans for 5G.
WeChat: A Roadmap for Facebook and Telcos in Conversational Commerce
Messaging services are increasingly enabling interactions and transactions between consumers and businesses. Largely pioneered by WeChat in China, the growing integration of digital communications and commerce services looks like a multi-billion dollar boon for Facebook and a major headache for Amazon, eBay and Google. It also poses a strategic dilemma for Apple and telcos: Can they turn their communications apps into shopping channels while championing privacy and security?
AT&T: Fast Pivot to the NFV Future
In 2014, AT&T launched its Domain 2.0 Programme to virtualise 75% of its network functions by 2020. So how is it going, and what are the lessons for others on the complex journey to the virtualised / agile Telco 2.0 digital vision?
Digital Partnering: Success Factors and AT&T Drive Case Study
Partnering is a key competence for building telco digital services offerings, but many past attempts have failed. So what does it take to succeed? In this briefing we review viable strategies, key success factors and barriers, and profile the highly effective approach used in AT&T’s Drive Ecosystem.
Problem: Telecoms technology inhibits operator business model change (Part 1)
The last few years have seen attempts by many leading telecoms operators to refresh their business model and generate new sources of growth and value. Now many digital initiatives are being scaled back. Telefonica and Telenor, two companies in the vanguard of the ‘drive to digital’ have both disbanded their digital organisations. In the first of two reports, STL Partners explores why efforts to yoke platform and product innovation businesses to a traditional infrastructure business have proved so difficult. The financial and operational constraints associated with traditional telecoms – particularly the need for long investment cycles in ‘one-function’ infrastructure – have made achieving the switch to ‘agile digital innovation’ all but impossible. But all that may be about to change and the future could be a little brighter.
Building Digital Trust: A Model for Telcos to Succeed in Commerce
Digital commerce continues to be held back by the lack of straightforward and consistent mechanisms for consumers to authenticate and identify themselves, share information and complete transactions with merchants. Telcos could address this fragmentation by creating a single framework through which individuals could interact with merchants, content companies and other service providers. Such a move would shore up telcos’ relevance and could ultimately increase their revenues. We show how, and review case studies from Deutsche Telekom (DTAG), Vodafone and KDDI.
Connectivity for telco IoT / M2M: Are LPWAN & WiFi strategically important?
It’s reasonably clear that standard cellular networks will only carry a fraction of the data of the Internet of Things (IoT), but how should telcos be involved in the fast growing range of low cost, disruptive networks that will carry the bulk? We examine the alternatives and outline strategic options.
Telcos’ Last Chance in Cloud? New $18bn Sovereign Cloud Opportunity
If telcos in certain markets act swiftly, there is a major new and addressable opportunity in cloud created by profound recent changes in data sovereignty and security requirements. We outline the market opportunities, specific customer needs, and market sizing in our latest research.
Connecting Brands with Customers: How leading operators are building sustainable advertising businesses
There has never been a better time for telcos to establish a profitable role as a market enabler in the mobile advertising ecosystem. STL Partners analyses how 3 telcos – Sprint, Turkcell and SingTel – lead the way in leveraging permission-based subscriber data and highlights the role that each has chosen to perform. The report assesses each company’s strategy and execution, outlines the core reasons for their success, and identifies 6 ways in which telcos can accelerate time to market with advertising and marketing solutions. (December 2015, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing With Disruption Stream, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)
Lag Kills! How App Latency Wrecks Customer Experience
Customer experience is fast becoming the new mantra for operators across the globe. But while improvements are being made in broadband speeds, customer experience and so forth, app latency and errors have largely gone ignored. This is despite the fact that both are important drivers of customer experience and of app developer profitability. Find out the relationship between latency and app errors and our analysis of those operators that are performing well and those that are ‘lagging’ behind.
The Open Source Telco: Taking Control of Destiny
Widespread use of open source software is an important enabler of agility and innovation in many of the world’s leading internet and IT players. Yet while many telcos say they crave agility, only a minority use open source to best effect. We examine the barriers and drivers, and outline six steps for telcos to safely embrace this key enabler of transformation and innovation.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix: Whose digital content is king?
Online entertainment is increasingly dominated by 5 big platforms but 6 forces are likely to shape the market going forward and could have profound effects on the dominant platforms. We analyse the relative strengths and weaknesses of each player and explore the potential opportunities for telcos to compete and collaborate.
Huawei’s choice: 5G visionary, price warrior or customer champion?
Huawei’s business performance in recent years has been impressive, based on sticking closely to what its customers wanted and making the results easy to buy. But fierce price competition will challenge near-term profit ambitions, and Huawei’s 5G vision is ahead of the market. So could things be about to change?
Mobile app latency in Europe: French operators lead; Italian & Spanish lag
Our latest analysis shows staggering differences in ‘app-lag’ (the time it takes for an app to get a response over the Internet) across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and twenty mobile operators. This has significant consequences for customer data experiences, and potentially operator market performance too. Operators in France, particularly Bouygues and Free, are delivering a superior customer app experience while 3 in Italy and Movistar in Spain are European laggards. (October 2015, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service.)
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