Telcos need new skills to change their organisations to compete like technology companies. Insights from our Future skills tracker tool show that telcos are behind techcos in the penetration of key skillsets and provides direction on the capabilities required to become more innovative, agile and software-driven overall.
The industry is still on track to deliver 5G Standalone and various types of virtualised RAN – but progress is a lot slower than originally expected. In this update of the Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker, we look beneath the hood of the numbers to assess what if anything will accelerate growth in 2024.
In this update, we present granular data on the 5G core, tracking the progress of deployments of both Non-standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA) network cores. We recorded 49 5G core deployments so far in 2022, 24 of which are SA launches.
More telcos are making deals to run their VNFs on the public cloud. Not much is live yet. But cloud hosting of network functions will support telcos in realising the benefits of cloud-native, and we believe telcos can safely go further and faster.
The knowledge and skills required to succeed in the digital environment are ever evolving. Telcos must maintain knowledge flows around the organisation and enhance their capacity to learn in order to keep pace and compete.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is becoming a mainstream proposition across urban, rural and developing environments. 5G is an important enabler but not the only one. Unusually, FWA will benefit almost all market players – fixed and mobile operators, vendors, investors and regulators. This report contains our 5-year forecast and recommendations for all players.
Successful innovation for telcos is important but has proved elusive. We look at some successes and more failures to draw out the common factors required for innovation to succeed.
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.
Albeit pioneering, Telefonica’s Digital business unit as was lacked focus and combined too many clashing cultures and incompatible businesses. Our latest analysis sees the change as ‘the end of the beginning’ for Telefonica’s Telco 2.0 services, and summarises lessons for all players implementing strategic transformation.
Telcos, Internet and technology players, banks and payment networks have disruptive $billion opportunities to act as intermediaries / enablers in mobile commerce and personal cloud services, based on the appropriate use of customer data. This report is a unique and comprehensive strategic guide for success in these roles. It analyses the strategies of the main and cutting-edge players, and outlines key success factors in designing and delivering customer propositions, technology, organisation and value network strategies. It also includes evaluations of the related strategic opportunities of ‘raw big data’, professional data services, and internal data use, and a business model showing how one type of candidate for the intermediary role, a telco, could grow profitable new revenues equivalent to c.$50Bn (5% of existing core revenues) within five years. (October 2013, Dealing with Dsiruption Stream). Telco 2.0 Transformation Index Small
How can communications services providers (CSPs) transform their businesses from Telco 1.0 (infrastructure-led stasis) to Telco 2.0 (sustainable innovation-led growth)? An essential, step-by-step guide to the implementation of new Telco 2.0 business models, providing telecoms executives and their partner companies with a systematic approach to capitalise on new opportunities and neutralise potential threats. The report outlines robust frameworks and methodologies for selecting the right Telco 2.0 strategy for each organization, identifying and implementing the key opportunities, and avoiding expensive and time-consuming mistakes. (December 2012, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream) Telco 2 Implementation Cover
‘Telco 2.0’ has evolved considerably since we put forward the original concept for telcos’ future success in 2006. Here we dispel ten myths and misunderstandings that have also evolved that can misdirect strategy. (August 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.)
impact of 2sbm aug 2012 small
Vodafone have been quietly stealing a march in the European SMB communications market with a well executed strategy centred on its OneNet cloud-based product. We look at how, including comparisons with BT, Telenor, and others. (May 2012, Executive Briefing Service)
Vodafone Voice Analysis May 2012
Our latest report on M2M 2.0 covers: M2M market growth, structure and dynamics; business models; the best role(s) for telcos; and leading thinking from Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telenor, KPN and Swisscom. It describes how ‘Service Enablers’ are key to the telco opportunity in M2M in addition to connectivity. (July 2011, Executive Briefing Service)
M2M Pie Chart Service Enablers July 2011
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
A review of Telenor, Jasper Wireless and KPN’s approaches to M2M, examining how M2M strategy needs to fit with an operators’ future broadband business model strategy. (October 2010)
Telenor’s new ‘Mobile Business Network’ integrates SME’s mobile and fixed phone systems via managed APIs, providing added functionality and delivering greater business efficiency. It uses a ‘two-sided’ business model strategy and targets the market via developers. (December 2009)