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Tag Archives: Telecom

Alibaba & Tencent: China’s Digital Disruptors (Part 1)

Both Alibaba and Tencent have created formidable Internet ecosystems within China. However, the increasingly competitive Chinese economy is now slowing, and their continued growth depends on weakening the control of Google, Facebook and Amazon over the global digital commerce market. In the first of two reports on China, we examine Alibaba and Tencent’s services, business models, and aspirations, and explain how and why telcos should support their international expansion.

Consumer — August 2015

Telco-Driven Disruption: What NTT DOCOMO, KT and Globe got right

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?

Consumer — July 2015
Key Questions for NextGen Broadband Part 1: The Business Case

Key Questions for NextGen Broadband Part 1: The Business Case

The network is one of telcos’ key assets. The case for investing in it was once straightforward: the bigger and faster the better. Yet today, many forces are combining to cloud that picture, such as virtualisation, regulation, the success of Internet services, network sharing, market consolidation and in some cases saturation, to name a few. To kick off our ‘Future of the Network’ research stream, we outline the key questions determining future investments in the network and our forthcoming work to address them. In Part 2, we’ll outline the key disruptive forces on the network.

Executive Briefing Service, Network Innovation — February 2015

Apple Pay & Weve Fail: A Wake Up Call

The unveiling of Apple Pay and unravelling of Weve (the UK operators’ payments venture) looked like bad news for telcos’ ambitions in mobile payments in some markets, and highlighted challenges to Google and others’ models. Yet there are already successful telco models and favourable market trends that telcos should exploit. So what are the opportunities now?

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — September 2014
Connected Car: Key Trends, Players and Battlegrounds

Connected Car: Key Trends, Players and Battlegrounds

Connected cars are set to revolutionise the automotive industry as we know it, turning the car into the ‘ultimate mobile device’ and driving the growth of M2M in a big way. With Apple, Google, telcos and many others in the chase, we analyse the growth drivers, value chain, and key battles for control of this increasingly complex ecosystem, and outline a new connected car services framework.

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — September 2014
Launchers: a new relevance point for telcos?

Launchers: a new relevance point for telcos?

A launcher is a customizable home screen for an Android device that allows users to reorganize, customize and interact with their device. Launchers are gaining popularity, with Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo all having either acquired or developed their own versions, but the market is fragmented with different launchers providing different functionality, services and monetization methods. Our latest analysis shows how telcos should seek to explore this area to help them establish more relevance in the digital ecosystem.

Executive Briefing Service — July 2014
Faster than Facebook: how to speed up digital transformation and disruptive innovation

Faster than Facebook: how to speed up digital transformation and disruptive innovation

Digital transformation is now impacting every industry, and one of the hardest organisational challenges is developing small-scale innovations fast and managing them in large and mature organisations. Here are our recommendations and key findings from the OnFuture EMEA 2014 cross-industry brainstorm, including a summary of Facebook’s internal recipe for speedy success. (June 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.)

Existing Business remains the biggest obstacle to innovation

Executive Briefing Service — June 2014
Triple-Play in the USA: Infrastructure Pays Off

Triple-Play in the USA: Infrastructure Pays Off

Verizon and Comcast have invested in high bandwidth fibre and cable networks, whereas AT&T has until recently focused on U-Verse, an IPTV play. Which strategy is winning out and why? The answer is surprising and may transform the US and other markets, and there are parallels with Apple and Samsung’s ‘deep value’ strategies of investing in assets that are hard to replicate.

Executive Briefing Service, Network Innovation — May 2014
Telco 1.0: Death Slide Starts in Europe

Telco 1.0: Death Slide Starts in Europe

The latest results for Telefonica are grim, showing a 12% y-o-y revenue decline, following Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s 4% drops. This signals unequivocally that transformation is now a necessity not a luxury for European operators – and the rest of the world is not far behind. Longer term recovery is possible but not a certainty – what are the key steps? (May 2014, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)
Enterprise Mobility Framework December 2013

Executive Briefing Service — May 2014
Digital Commerce 2.0: Disrupting the Californian Giants

Digital Commerce 2.0: Disrupting the Californian Giants

Amazon, Google, Apple, eBay/PayPal and Facebook are the big five brokers of digital commerce. But the disruption caused by the rise of mass-market smartphones, and the personal data they generate, means the medium-term leadership of these California-based companies is not assured. Each of them has weaknesses that could hinder their progress towards securing a strong strategic position in the new Digital Commerce 2.0 marketplace, and render them potentially vulnerable to competition from telcos, banks and/or start-ups. (October 2013, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.) Digital Commerce 2.0 Gap

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — October 2013
Cloud 2.0: Securing Trust to Survive the ‘One-In-Five’ CSP Shake-Out

Cloud 2.0: Securing Trust to Survive the ‘One-In-Five’ CSP Shake-Out

The Cloud market is on the verge of the next wave of market penetration, yet it’s likely that only one in five Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in today’s marketplace will still be around by 2018, as providers fail or are swallowed up by aggressive competitors. So what do CSPs need to do to survive and prosper? (October 2013, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream.)
Technology adoption rates Sept 2013

Executive Briefing Service, Network Innovation — October 2013