Last update02:11:21 PM
By Paul Kilby, Training Consultant at the Informa Telecoms Academy
2012 really will be the year when maturing markets, data and the realities of over-the-top players impact on how operators’ strategies for the future are shaped.
New business models, built around content ecosystems and broadband services, will finally emerge and transform telcos forever. Only the most agile will fully benefit from the many opportunities for growth that are available.
Growth in mobile data and emerging markets could not stop TeliaSonera registering a disappointing set of 2011 financial results.
The Sweden-based operator revealed that net sales were down two percent to €11.8 billion compared to 2010. Net income was down 11 percent year-on-year to €2.4 billion.
Last year ended with a whimper as the company unveiled fourth quarter results that delivered a modest one percent y-o-y increase in net sales to €3.1 billion. Net income fell five percent to €644 million over the same period.
Exclusive videos from European Communications' recent customer experience seminar are now available to view.
Attendees at the Understanding Customer Experience event in London on 18 January saw four presentations featuring operator Openreach, market research firm Kantar Worldpanel and management consultancies Accenture and Infosys.
What consumers really want and how operators are attempting to meet these expectations were some of the topics under discussion in the first two presentations. More specific angles such as how to improve physical retail outlets and how the customer experience agenda is changing were featured in the latter two presentations.
The Q1 2012 issue of European Communications will launch at Mobile World Congress next month with customer experience taking centre stage in our bumper special report.
BT Group CIO Clive Selley (pictured) is the subject of our feature interview and shares his views on how the UK-based operator is turning customer experience into a science.
David Noguer Bau, head of service provider marketing, EMEA, at US-based vendor Juniper Networks discusses current and future trends.
Eurocomms.com: Juniper released its Q4 and 2011 results last week showing a weak final quarter but increased full year revenues. Your president and CEO highlighted weak demand from service providers – do you see this changing?
David Noguer Bau: Well what I would say is that we are still seeing interest from service providers and from my perspective the buying cycle is still healthy. Obviously there is a problem with weak economies.
By François Eloy, EVP, Colt Communication Services
Network operators that were once primarily focused on delivering voice services in a single market are now forced to enter new markets and offer solutions that integrate new technologies to generate new revenue streams.
However, no operator is able to provide telecommunications and IT services in all regions nor is able to cover the full voice, data and managed IT services portfolio alone.
The European Commission put forward some comprehensive reform to data protection laws on Wednesday that could have profound implications for telcos.
The EC is recommending a wide range of proposals that will form a single set of rules valid for all 27 member states if approved.
There are perhaps three key ones for telcos. Accountability shifts to those who process personal data so that, for example, companies could be obliged to notify authorities of serious data breaches within 24 hours.
Ericsson reported strong 2011 sales but collapsing profits on Wednesday, as it warned that a weak fourth quarter and increasingly cautious operators mean a challenging 12 months lie ahead.
The Sweden-based vendor registered a 12 percent year-on-year rise in overall revenue to €25.7 billion.
However, a rise of just one percent in y-o-y Q4 sales, albeit a 15 percent rise on the previous quarter to €7.2 billion, disappointed Hans Vestberg, the company president and CEO.
Austrian mobile operator H3G has made two significant investments in new technology as it attempts to position itself for the expansion in wireless data.
The company has deployed HP’s home subscriber server to support its LTE network and Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G optical coherent technology to expand fibre optic network capacity.
H3G started offering LTE services in November 2011. The service, available to consumers via a modem, is running in Vienna.
