Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners
When Amazon Web Services (AWS) landed in Australia in 2012, everyone expected carnage for Australian carriers. Telstra’s Network Applications & Services division, though, is growing fast and making some interesting moves. How did Telstra do it, and what else can be learned from its successes and its latest moves into the Healthcare market?
Seven predictions and four scenarios for how the industry might play out in Europe in the next 5 years: ‘Digital Renaissance’, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Commoditised Utility’ and ‘Telco Trainwreck’. Plus what are the take-outs for other markets?
In the first of two reports, STL Partners evaluates how several powerful forces, within and beyond the control of telcos, look set to change the shape of the European market and considers the options for how these forces might develop going forward.
How agile are telcos today, what are the barriers and opportunities, and what can be done to improve agility? We look in depth at the findings from the Telco 2.0 Agility Challenge, and identify some key steps for telcos and partners to take, including specific organisational strategies to be ‘Agile by Design’ and the need for an ‘information intensive’ culture.
As they seek new sources of revenue, many telcos around the world are attempting to disrupt adjacent markets, such as digital commerce, IT, entertainment and financial services. While many of these moves have proved to be too little, too late, several disruptive plays have had a significant impact on both the telco’s revenues and relevance. These include NTT DOCOMO’s Smart Life portfolio, Globe Telecom’s GCash service and KT’s media business. Why do some disruptive moves by telcos succeed and others fail?
Mobile Authentication could be Telcos’ key asset in the digital economy, but they are in danger of losing out through insufficient action. There are good case studies and an excellent blueprint in the GSMA’s Mobile Connect initiative for how to monetise their assets and stay relevant. So why aren’t they getting on with it?
Companies that can provide quick and robust authentication mechanisms will be in a strategically important position in the digital economy, and this is sparking an arms race among the major Internet ecosystems – Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. This race is intensifying as biometrics and wearables promise to make two-factor authentication easier and more cost-effective. What are the strategies of the internet players, and where do they need help?
As several operators in Europe downsize their Telco 2.0 Digital Services activity, some are seeking to reframe the Piper strategy as a premium-priced differentiation play based on network quality. This report argues this is deluded and dangerous – a Piper strategy is viable but only by developing cost-leadership in a commodity market.
A primary benefit envisaged of 5G networks is that latency (i.e. delay times for users) will be massively reduced. This would deliver major benefits for many applications providing that the software for those cloud-based applications is located near enough to the users at the edge of the network. This is likely to drive a massive change in the architecture of the cloud and the network industries. This report outlines likely scenarios and identifies some early moves that are starting to play out now.
Cable operators are on the verge of a massive and remarkably easy capacity upgrade. Where it has begun, fixed incumbents are already being forced to deploy fibre. Gigabit WiFi is coming too, so mobile operators are very much concerned.
5G. SDN/NFV. Gigabit cable. WiFi. IoT. Spectrum policy. Vendor consolidation. Despite carefully-constructed business cases for future network investment, the goal-posts are always moving, and even the best-laid plans face possible disruptions – positive or negative. To kick off our ‘Future of the Network’ research stream, we outlined the key questions determining the business case for future investments in the network. This is Part 2, which covers critical network-technology disruptions, the impact of government and regulation, and the shifting vendor landscape.
In Q4 2012 Verizon was No.1 in Strategic Business Services (SBS) and had just bought a huge data centre provider. In Q4 2014, AT&T had overtaken Verizon in revenues from this segment. What happened, and what are the lessons for other telcos in the Enterprise SBS market?
Amazon has revealed that its cloud services arm is growing very fast and is surprisingly profitable. An analysis of the strategy that underpins the exceptional performance of Amazon Web Services provides important pointers about the future of the cloud computing market, how to balance the trade-off between convenience and cost, and where there may be scope for others (such as telcos) to succeed.
What is ‘agility’ and what makes it meaningful to operators? We explored the concept and characteristics of ‘operator agility’ through 29 interviews with telco senior executives, found three main barriers and five key opportunity areas, and identified some surprising and important conclusions about both what it means and the key steps needed to achieve it.
How will getting into the MVNO business help Google shore up its business model? We examine Google’s objectives, how it could price the service, and the implications for telcos and other players.
We outline our ‘proxy model’ for valuing Digital Services Businesses, based on current best practice, which has significant advantages over traditional approaches. This report, our second of two on valuation, gives a worked example of a telco’s digital business in Asia that is already worth $1bn, and includes an analysis of approaches being taken by some leading telcos today.
Facebook has changed substantially since we first analysed the company in 2011. In our latest major report we explore the accuracy of our 2011 predictions regarding users, revenue and strategy. We also examine Facebook’s current aspirations and challenges and explain why, where and how operators should be working with Facebook to build value.
Our research focuses on how telcos and their partners can embrace industry disruption.
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