Telco 2.0™ Research

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. (June 2015, Executive Briefing Service)

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. (May 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Network Stream.) 

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. (May 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Network Stream.) 

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. (May 2015, Future of the Network Stream)

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? (May 2015, Dealing With Disruption Stream.)

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? (May 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream.)

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. (April 2015, Dealing with Disruption Stream, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream.)

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. (April 2015, Executive Briefing Service)

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. (April 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream)

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. (April 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)

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. (March 2015, Dealing with Disruption Stream)

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? (March 2015, Executive Briefing Service)

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? (March 2015, Cloud and Enterprise ICT Stream)

Digital initiatives are an important part of the telecoms growth story.  However, because they are so different to the traditional telecoms business, they require different performance metrics: a digital dashboard.  In this report, we examine the importance of metrics in shaping business performance, explore the contribution of metrics to 3 telco digital success stories, and reveal how a cutting-edge approach to metrics is driving digital execution at Telkom Indonesia. (February 2015, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream)

The valuation of digital businesses is vital because it drives key strategy and investment decisions, yet highly contentious, as there are many different possible approaches. In the first of two reports on this topic, we appraise the main external valuation methods, and their suitability for use or otherwise with new telecoms business models. (February 2015, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream)

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. (February 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Network Stream.)

The Future of the Network stream addresses new business models and strategies for next-generation fixed and mobile networks: managing disruptive forces and improving business performance. This page outlines who its for, what it will cover, and why.

Netflix’s success in the US and in Western Europe has demonstrated that consumers are willing to change how they watch and pay for TV and movies.  As a result Netflix’s OTT proposition is challenging traditional pay TV models and changing how new broadband services are looking at content.  For some players Netflix is a threat and for others an opportunity.  So, how should content owners, channels, pay platforms and broadband providers respond? (February 2015 UPDATE, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

STL Partners' industry transformation analysis, including a recent global survey of telco executives, suggests operators' digital ambitions are rising fast but, given 9 substantial implementation challenges, too little is currently being done to engender successful industry-wide business model transformation. We also look at the lessons from NTT DoCoMo, one of the operators that has made the most overall progress towards a 'digital' model. (February 2015, Executive Briefing Service, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)

Although telcos aren’t generally associated with disruption, many operators around the world have attempted to disrupt adjacent markets, such as digital commerce, entertainment and financial services. In some cases, telcos have even disrupted their core broadband and communications markets. While many of these moves have fizzled out or have flown below investors’ radar screens, several have had a major impact on both the telco’s revenues and relevance. These include SK Planet, M-Pesa, Au Smart Pass and BT Sport. Why do some disruptive moves by telcos succeed and others fail? (January 2015, Dealing with Disruption Stream)

BT's attempt to acquire EE in the UK presents the regulator and its competitors with choices that could re-frame the principles of regulation and competition in an era of consolidation, with consequences for many other markets. Will BT succeed, and if so, what will be the terms of the deal, and how will the market subsequently play out? (January 2015, Executive Briefing Service)

AT&T’s residential fixed operation is underperforming as faster cable connections take over. It would probably like to trim its footprint or get out, and invest in fibre and its content business model. Is that really an option, and what are the lessons for other telcos? (December 2014, Executive Briefing Service)

Apple is weakening Samsung Electronics’ grip in the high-end of the handset market, lowering the Korean company’s profitability and capacity to compete effectively. After a series of largely unsuccessful attempts to break into software and services, a daring option for Samsung is to seek a strong, strategic alliance with Google to enable both companies to mount a serious challenge to Apple’s dominance in the affluent demographic. Telcos could back such an alliance in return for a profitable role in the service layer. This report analyses the strategic rationale for such an approach. (December 2014, Dealing with Disruption Stream)

What is disruption, when is it a good idea, and what do you do when it happens to you? We illustrate five principles of disruptive strategy based on our analysis of the telecoms and adjacent markets over the past eight years. The analysis covers both principles of creating and defending against disruption. (November 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream)

Service providers need to grow new revenues. The cloud market looks potentially attractive, and is growing at about 30% CAGR, but it is dominated in many areas by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. So is Cloud part of the answer for telcos, and if so how? This report looks at the role of the service provider in the cloud market and products that service providers might offer in 2015. (November 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream)

The multi-trillion dollar commerce, communications and content markets are developing fast, and Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and others are key disruptive forces. The Dealing with Disruption Stream covers this, plus: the roles for telcos and others, strategies for success, key emerging players, how to compete / collaborate, case studies of disruptive innovation and competion, and principles and lessons for innovation and defence from all markets. (November 2014, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

Major transformation is required to grow $350+Bn of new revenue in the telecoms industry by 2020. Building on 8 years of proprietary research, we outline the agenda for the Telco 2.0 Transformation stream, a new service to helps executives identify opportunities, counter threats and manage change (October 2014, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)

$Multi-billion Cloud, Enterprise Mobility, eHealth and other advanced enterprise ICT markets are among the key opportunities in the Telco 2.0 business model. This is an outline of the agenda and objectives of our new programme of research that identifies threats and opportunities, leading thinking, and real world examples and models to implement and manage success in these areas. (October 2014, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream.)

A small and surprising set of national operators are delivering outstanding performance in the challenging European market. Our analysis shows how they’re achieving differentiation with smart strategies that target the hottest customer need, and the considerable ramifications for the rest of the market.  (October 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).

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? (September 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

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. (September 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

Free’s shock bid for T-Mobile USA will stretch its finances and management capacity to the limit. Can Free’s package of tactics, technology, and procedures work in the US context? (August 2014, Executiive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).

Since Google acquired Nest for $3.2bn, Apple and Samsung have also entered the complex battle for the connected home. We analyse in-depth why Google wanted Nest, the players’ goals and strategies, and what should telcos and others do to stay in the game? (August 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

Facing lockout from a growing chunk of the Internet and mounting competition from the Facebook-Microsoft alliance and Amazon, Google’s core business is under intense pressure. The search giant’s response is to innovate, offering consumers proactive recommendations, as well as reactive search results. Once an interesting sideline, Google Now has become fundamental to the Mountain View company’s future. Is the suggestion service good enough to maintain Google’s position as the world’s leading big data company?  (July 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)

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. (July 2014, Executive Briefing Service.)

Benchmarking comparison of 6 global players (Telefonica, Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon, SingTel, and Ooredoo (formerly Qtel) and implications for the telecoms industry. (July 2014, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream)

T-Mobile USA’s ‘uncarrier’ strategy has delivered significant net additions, but is it a good strategy - and is the disruption promised by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son already underway? We compare it to Free Mobile’s disruptive approach in France, and the results of its competitors’ responses. (June 2014, Executive Briefing Service.)

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.)

Our new global research among enterprises and telcos shows that many telcos are ideally positioned, but underprepared, to exploit the fast emerging and evolving $50bn Enterprise Mobility opportunity. How can telcos address this gap? (May 2014, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service, Cloud & Enterprise ICT Stream.)

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. (May 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).

In this new report based on Telco 2.0 Transformation Index analysis we compare Vodafone’s competitive positioning with another European-centric multi-national, Telefonica.  The results are surprising and instructive, showing that Vodafone faces substantial challenges if it is to grow in the foreseeable future. (April 2014 Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.)