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.
A high-level analysis of the M2M market, including the strategies of Vodafone, AT&T and Telefonica, and the impact that the Internet of Things and new entrants such as Google and others will have with new business models. What are the implications for operators, and where is it all leading?
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.
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
Key trends, tactics, and technologies for mobile broadband networks and services that will influence mid-term revenue opportunities, cost structures and competitive threats. Includes consideration of LTE, network sharing, WiFi, next-gen IP (EPC), small cells, CDNs, policy control, business model enablers and more. (March 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
Trends in European data usage
The telecoms industry often puts so-called OTT (over-the-top) players like Google and Facebook at the forefront of its concerns, as they pose new competition for services and applications. But what about encroachment of companies “underneath” the telcos, displacing them from their core asset, the network? Telco 2.0 examines the strategic threats and opportunities from wholesale providers, outsourcers and government-run broadband networks. (January 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
UTF Image Jan 2012
An analysis of the status of LTE, the next generation of wireless network technology, including a round-up of early operator trials, and views on prospects for key vendors by Telco 2.0 partners Arete Research. (December 2011, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are becoming familiar in the fixed broadband world as a means to improve the experience and reduce the costs of delivering bulky data like online video to end-users. Is there now a compelling need for their mobile equivalents, and if so, should operators partner with existing players or build / buy their own? (August 2011, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
Telco 2.0 Six Key Opportunity Types Chart July 2011
Innovation appears to be flourishing in mobile broadband. At the Telco 2.0 EMEA Executive Brainstorm earlier this month we saw working applications that enable a.) users to monitor and control their network usage and services and b.) operators to support ‘dynamic pricing’. Despite growing enthusiasm for LTE, delegates considered offloading traffic and network sharing strategies as at least as effective in managing costs. (May 2011, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream) Mobile Broadband Fuel Gauge
This Strategy Report plots the transformational path that telcos need to follow to achieve the $375Bn p.a. ‘Telco 2.0’ opportunities. It describes the six growth opportunity areas for the Telecoms industry, identifies new categories of operators, benchmarks the primary strategies needed by each to evolve and thrive in the new industry environment, and highlights leading examples of telco business model innovation. It has 284 pages, including a 13 page Executive Summary and a detailed index. (April 2011, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream) The Roadmap to new Telco 2.0 Business Models