As operators embark on their telco cloud journeys, what should they look out for and what lessons can they learn from others? This report analyses the strategies and progress of four operators leading the way in telco cloud transformation and sheds light on the lessons learned from their initial deployments.
Telcos and policymakers need new metrics to power evidence-based decisions. New tools and data sources can help build greater understanding and transparency in telecoms.
In a market with a high volume of free consumer cyber security services and a number of consumer safety players offering premium digital life protections, how can telcos carve out an opportunity for themselves?
In this update, we present data and analysis on progress with deployments of vRAN and open RAN. It is fair to say that open RAN (virtualised AND disaggregated RAN) deployments have not happened at the pace that STL Partners and many others had forecast. In parallel, some very significant deployments and developments are occurring with vRAN (virtualised NOT disaggregated RAN). Is open RAN a networking ideal that is not yet, or never will be, deployed in its purest form?
As SD-WAN matures the relative strengths and opportunities for telcos and vendors are becoming clearer. Where should telcos focus, and how will that affect their choice of SD-WAN platform?
Born of a unique partnership between Deutsche Telekom and Cisco, ngena leverages the networks of partners worldwide to provide a global enterprise connectivity platform. How did it come about, how successful has it been, and what does it teach us about innovation in telecoms?
New NFV/SDN deployments in North America are increasingly driven by 5G, with a striking role for open source and telco self-builds. Globally, our tracker includes details of nearly 500 NFV/SDN deployments between 2011 and May 2019.
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?
NFV (Network Functions Virtualisation) potentially offers operators benefits of up to 80% network opex reduction and significant improvements in agility, and threatens a shake-up of the vendor landscape. What are the challenges to making it happen, and what do telcos and vendors need to do to succeed?
We see five major trends leading towards the overall picture of the ‘software defined operator’ – an operator whose boundaries and structure can be set and controlled through software. This presents threats as well as opportunities for industry players selling and wanting to sell to telcos.
Disruption is taking place across the voice and messaging space – not just with telcos. Established vendors and de facto technology standards are also being challenged. For example, Cisco, the market leader in enterprise telephony, finds itself being disrupted in key markets by other vendors offering more horizontally integrated solutions. This report provides an overview and insight into a number of vendors and technologies in the voice and messaging markets, including telco platforms and services, and LTE, RCSe, and WebRTC. Three telco case studies (Vodafone, Telefonica and AT&T) are also provided, examining their activities, products and results.
Consumer and enterprise communications behaviours are changing significantly around the globe as new solutions meet core needs more effectively and change customer expectations. This extract from our latest major report provides insight to the changes, and describes effective strategies that meet these evolving needs for both incumbents attempting to defend existing services and innovators seeking to disrupt and create new value. (December 2013, Executive Briefing Service)
Psychological and social advantages of voice, SMS, IM, and Social Media Dec 2013
Our new research shows how telcos can slow the decline of voice and messaging revenues and build new communications services to maximise revenues and relevance with both consumer and enterprise customers. It includes detailed forecasts for 9 markets, in which the total decline is forecast between -25% and -46% on a $375bn base between 2012 and 2018, giving telcos an $80bn opportunity to fight for. It also shows impacts and implications for other technology players including vendors and partners, and general lessons for competing with disruptive players in all markets. It looks at the impact of so-called OTT competition, market trends and drivers, bundling strategies, operators developing their own Telco-OTT apps, advanced Enterprise Communications services, and the opportunities to exploit new standards such as RCS, WebRTC and VoLTE. (November 2013, Executive Briefing Service). Future Value of Voice and Messaging Cover Small
Software Defined Networking is a technological approach to designing and managing networks that has the potential to increase operator agility, lower costs, and disrupt the vendor landscape. Its initial impact has been within leading-edge data centres, but it also has the potential to spread into many other network areas, including core public telecoms networks. This briefing analyses its potential benefits and use cases, outlines strategic scenarios and key action plans for telcos, summarises key vendor positions, and why it is so important for both the telco and vendor communities to adopt and exploit SDN capabilities now. (May 2013, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream, Future of the Networks Stream).
Potential Telco SDN/NFV Deployment Phases May 2013
The fight for the Cloud Services market is about to move into new segments and territories. In the build up to the launch of our new strategy report, ‘Telco strategies in the Cloud’, we review perspectives on this shared at the 2012 EMEA and Silicon Valley Executive Brainstorms by strategists from major telcos and tech players, including: Orange, Telefonica, Verizon, Vodafone, Amazon, Bain, Cisco, and Ericsson (September 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream).
Cloud Growth Groups September 2012
Dyle TV, a new mobile TV broadcast network (supported by Fox), was presented at the Silicon Valley Brainstorm against the backdrop of Cisco’s VNI (Visual Networking Index) research on forecast growth in mobile video traffic. It was argued that Dyle’s model can both take the pressure off mobile operator data capacity by taking video traffic ‘round the side’ and make good use of TV broadcasters’ spectrum. Could this model work, not only in the US but elsewhere around the world? (May 2012, Executive Briefing Service)
Doc Searls, Telco 2.0 Video Still April 2012
Customer Experience 2.0: Hosted Unicomms for Business, Presentation by Fabio Gori, Head, SP Marketing, EMEA, Cisco Systems. Sizing the opportunity of business communications in the cloud. Presented at EMEA Brainstorm, November 2011. (November 2011, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream) Understanding SMBs and enterprises’ needs