What to learn from - and how to compete with - Internet Communications Services

Summary: Voice and Messaging 2.0 is Telco 2.0's analysis of the industry's traditional core business, traditionally c.80% of $3 trillion Telco revenues, based on our unique insight into the emerging competition, the industry value chain, and original research into user needs.

There is a great wave of change and innovation in voice and messaging, although many telcos are missing out. Innovative new players are stepping in and there is opportunity for telcos is to work with them rather than compete - there are genuine opportunities as well as threats. This report illuminates the evolving opportunities and threats, and provides an invaluable guide to success in this exciting new world. (April 2008)

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This report is now availalable to members of our Telco 2.0 Research Executive Briefing Service. Below is an introductory extract and list of contents from this strategy Report that can be downloaded in full in PDF format by members of the executive Briefing Service here.

For more on any of these services, please email / call +44 (0) 207 247 5003 


Key Points

• An in-depth profile of the new Voice Applications opportunity.
• Identifies and profiles the most interesting of the current crop of innovations.
• Provides an original framework for assessing and developing successful new voice and messaging services.
• Profiles the increasing threat to the traditional vertically-integrated model of voice services posed by these services.
• Shows the surprising degree to which industry experts expect the landscape of voice and messaging, and increasingly 'presence' oriented services, to change in the foreseeable future.
• Shows the pressing need for a different approach by Telcos.
• Describes the strategies and practical approaches most likely to succeed in the near and long term.

Who is this report for?

The report is for senior (CxO) decision-makers and business strategists setting business strategy, and for product managers, and strategic sales, business development and marketing professionals acting in the Voice arena in the following types of organisations:

• Fixed & Mobile Broadband Operators - to set and drive strategy.

• Vendors & Business Partners - to understand customer need and develop winning customer propositions.

• Regulators and Standards Bodies - to inform strategy and policy making.

Strategists and CxOs in IT and Investment Companies may also find this report useful to understand the future landscape of the Telecoms and related industries, and to help to spot likely winning and losing investment and operational strategies in the market.

Background Context – Voice & Messaging Revenues Under Threat

Core voice and messaging revenues – which remain 80% of the Telecoms industry’s global revenue – are under stronger threat than ever before:

• Mobile operators are moving to HSPA and WiMAX networks that facilitate 'over the top' voice; flat-rate or supersize buckets of data are becoming cheap and widespread; maturing dual-mode and pico/femtocells technologies threaten the 'mobility premium' at home and in the office; and non-operator SMS and IM services force large/unlimited message bundles and price competition.
• Fixed operators have found continued profit in enterprise voice, but voice threatens to migrate from being a distinct service (through a PBX or even IP Centrex) into just being a feature of an online collaboration and productivity suite. Consumer social media and communications technologies increasingly penetrate the enterprise, further weakening the differentiator of the telco as an IT services and communications integrator.

The consequence of this diversification in means of delivering voice and messaging is a major change to the forecast nature of industry revenues.

Yet the industry does not believe that it truly understands it's customers' real needs from the most core products

(Source: STL Partners Telco 2.0™ Voice & Messaging Survey, January 2007 and 2008 (A survey of operators and vendors across the Telco industry); n=327

The Voice & Messaging report describes the forecast evolution of the market and shows how Telcos can work with the market to develop new services and distribution channels. It provides an original framework for identifying competitive characteristics of new applications and profiles 70 of the latest interesting Telco 2.0 innovations that we’ve encountered in our research – an invaluable tool for visionary CxOs, strategists and product managers alike.

Key Questions Answered