Q4 2009
The ATS Network & Billing Update is published by Advanced Technologies & Services, Inc. (www.atso.com), a revenue and service assurance solutions provider. This free newsletter is a guide to telecommunications OSS, billing, and revenue assurance news and other telecom industry analysis. To unsubscribe, contribute an article, or for offbeat news, please scroll to the end. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and co-workers!
In this issue:
OffBeat News: Texting Was Never Actually Designed for Consumer Market
Telecom in 2010, Belt
Tightening or Expansion?
By: Randall
Guthrie,
President, ATS
There is no shortage of opinions on the state of the economy or the state of the telecom industry. The administration has been telling us for some time now that the recession is over or nearly over. Key industry leaders and banking officials such as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke seem to agree that if its not over yet it probably will be over by mid 2010.
The perception of economic blue skies is changing investment and business strategies for providers as we move into the new year. The good news is that there is a pent up demand for capital projects that cater to these new business models. The lack of investment over the past two years and the cost containment strategies put into play over during this period have resulted in some ready cash for the right projects. But what are the right projects?
While each of our clients is different in their approach to managing their business in 2010, here are the top initiatives for 2010.
1. Improved Financials. No surprise here. Most businesses experienced declines in sales in 2009. Our clients are telling us however, that they expect to return to pre 2008 revenue growth curves. Many businesses got a pass on dismal financial performance in 2009 due to an economy that through no fault of telecom managers, caused end users to spend cautiously. Good economy or bad economy, no one gets a pass next year.
According to a survey conducted by Telesoft Corp., large business enterprises will be under tremendous pressure to reduce spending in 2010. With unemployment across the entire work force still at 27-year highs, this trend in belt tightening will continue to affect consumer spending too, making improved financials a real challenge.
2. Enhanced product portfolios. ATS clients are all asking the same question, “How can we differentiate our service offerings from our many competitors”? That question has always kept CMO’s up at night. Now add to the mix that we are on the threshold of an intersection of Google, Apple, and the global providers like Verizon and at&t. Suddenly, everyone’s crystal ball foretells a restructuring of the major players and their roles. It may not be enough to come up with a great competitive product portfolio but it is a very high priority in 2010.
3. Improved customer experience. Most providers today realize that they can drive customer satisfaction with strong customer support and positive interaction experiences. For our clients this is one of the areas on which they are willing to spend capital dollars. Several of our clients have told us that they will continue to seek funds to enhance the customer experience and that they will try to fund these projects with savings in expense dollars. Providers across the globe tell us that they are spending significant dollars on enhanced billing and provisioning systems. More money will be spent in 2010-2011 to give the customer the ability to manage their own networks and make their own changes to their service portfolios.
4. Driving expense out of the business. We mentioned this in items 1,2, and 3 above but this one deserves a separate mention because we have not spoken to anyone who is not obsessed with driving costs down.
5. Life cycle management of smart devices. Not long ago, smart phones were high-end devices that only a few business types needed. Competition has driven prices for the phones and the usage plans down to the point that they are now affordable to casual users. This means that almost every above entry-level device is now a computing platform. With most phones being smart how does the provider differentiate? According to industry experts, Smart phones have to transition to Genius phones. What’s Genius? Think about iTunes Genius playlist where the device figures out what music goes together. Think about Amazon who knows what you will buy next. This is the next product differentiation challenge for mobile handset providers –to get to genius.
Belt tightening or expansion? To us it looks like both in 2010. Whatever segment of telecom you work in, your financials will have to improve which means adherence to budgets. Managers will also be evaluated on the choices they make in what to sink capital dollars into. Lots of challenges for marketing folks too in getting companies and product lines ready for Google, Apple and others. No one will accuse you of working in a boring industry!
Wishing you the best in 2010,
Randall B. Guthrie
President
Advanced Technologies and Services, Inc.
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The
Cloud's the Thing in 2010
Courtesy of Xchange
By all accounts, 2010 will mark a sea change (or several) in the telecom industry, with an accompanying shift in the competitive landscape. In this special for VON and Billing & OSS World, xchange editor Tara Seals talks to execs at AT&T, Google, Clearwire, Comcast, XO and others about where the biggest trends, opportunities and threats are going forward. Here's an excerpt of that conversation.
How do the broad trends of cloud services, VoIP, the rise of over-the-top players and widespread broadband mobility impact the business and the general competitive landscape going forward?
Comcast Corp.’s Cathy Avgiris, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Voice and Wireless Services: Quality of service will still be an issue. If you can’t get good coverage in your home, then you’ll still need home phone service and we think having a facilities-based service that has the ability to converge with video and Internet services will be highly compelling and a true differentiator for us.
Google Inc.’s Richard S. Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel: Technology has led to a dramatic increase in the pace of innovation, and things aren't slowing down. The Internet is the fastest growing communications medium in history.
We're in the midst of massive shift in computing, from a desktop-centric model to a cloud computing model, where data and content lives in the network cloud and you access and use it whenever, wherever, and however you want to. We're only just starting to scratch the surface of how we use mobile devices. There are 270 million wireless subscribers in the United States today – just a decade ago, a mobile phone was a novelty. More and more people are accessing the Web from their phones.
What are the biggest new opportunities that are arising from the shifting sands of competition?
AT&T Inc.’s Roman P. Pacewicz, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Application Services: We have always been – and will continue to be – a networking company. After all, it’s the “network” that connects people and resources so things get done. In simple terms, our strategy is to deliver network, computing and application services to any device, and transform the way these services are used by the customers we serve.
Click Here for the full story.
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Telecom Stocks to See ‘Robust Growth’ in 2010
Courtesy of B&OSS
Research firm IHS Global Insight predicts IT and telecom stocks will see “robust growth” in sales and earnings throughout 2010 and 2011.
Analysts expect tech sectors to grow at twice the pace of gross domestic product with telecom expected to jump about 50 percent higher than the overall U.S. stock market.
The findings come from IHS Global Insight’s latest global forecast for sectors holding the most promise for investors. Not only will IT and telecom stocks grow, the firm said, but equity valuations should remain at attractive levels that yield enviable dividends and payout ratios.
Click Here for the full story.
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Offbeat News:
Texting was Never Actually Designed for Consumer Market
Courtesy of
Guardian UK
For a technology that has become so all-pervasive that texting has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary, SMS (short message service) was not designed as a mass market consumer communications service at all.
"It was designed to use some spectrum and provide an internal messaging service for engineers and maybe become the beginnings of a Teletext-type service," explains Mike Short, chief technology officer for Telefonica O2 Europe. "In the early 1990s we had Teletext and Ceefax on the TV, and in some countries people said 'maybe we could do this on a mobile phone one day'. But in the early 1990s the screens were so tiny that people could not envisage it, we had no connectivity to the internet so people experimented a little bit."
Click Here for the full story.
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