Conferences and Industry Trends
Friday, August 13, 2010
Feeling My Age
Recently, we had an intern candidate in. Smart guy, graduated from one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. He had researched our firm thoroughly before contacting us about an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of our unique and growing business. Determined to learn more, he came by to talk telecom.
A chip off the Y generation, I suspect his context was the smartphone in his pocket, an unlimited data plan, and the coolest bandwidth-intensive apps this side of the Mississippi. He asked me pointedly, “So what do you think of the problems AT&T has had with their network and the iPhone dropping calls?” I started in on the whole data traffic explosion thing, using words like unprecedented, unabated and unprepared.
After he left my office, I had the sudden feeling that I’d lived this life before. It wasn’t until the next day listening to a new Droid radio commercial pushing high-def video, unlimited texting and hyper-fast this and that, that it struck me. New generation, same problem. Just bigger.
Remember the birth of client-server apps? The pinnacle of performance and productivity. That is until so many users tried to access them simultaneously, the volume of data requests clogged networks and brought servers to their knees. Frustrating and unproductive, there was nothing friendly about it. And how about the time when a 56K modem was considered a high-speed connection? The truth is that with each new era comes a quantum leap in technology that, frankly, makes you forget. If nothing else, it’s probably the most exciting time in the Telecom industry for a young intern – or anyone else.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Cycle Continues
France Telecom’s new CEO, Stephane Richard, was out in front of the press earlier this week detailing the carrier’s five-year strategic growth plan. It’s a big, bold and ambitious plan that by 2015 could see Orange the service provider of choice for 300 million people. By my calculation, that amounts to roughly 22% of the world’s population. How does France Telecom plan to go from 192 million to 300 million customers in five years? Upgrade existing networks and capitalize on the explosive growth in markets such as the Middle East and Africa. Making the most of new opportunities in emerging markets will almost certainly involve a few strategic acquisitions, which are en vogue across the industry (right now, the industry’s on pace to have its busiest year of M&A since 2005 when transactions topped $408 billion).
Any time there’s an acquisition in this industry, the price tag, expected revenue and customer growth will almost certainly grab all of the headlines. What you won’t hear much about though is how these companies plan to manage all of their newly acquired network assets for maximum profit. A seemingly minor detail to a large transaction? That’s a dangerous omission for firms looking to assuage investors of a multi-billion dollar deal. When you get right down to it, the financial models created to support an acquisition are predicated on metrics such as operational efficiency, integration of network infrastructure, and service delivery levels. If a company can’t answer fundamental questions about the location, condition, or value of those millions of network assets it just acquired, discharging those models will become daunting at best.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Looking to the Future and Living in the Present
CTIA kicks off on Monday in Las Vegas. Judging by the news reports this week, looks like we’re in for a lot of announcements related to handsets – e.g. smartphones – and 4G technology. As the industry races toward 4G (and whatever lies beyond) the reality is that for the foreseeable future we’re going to see 4G, 3G and 2G all co-existing within the same ecosystem. The disparity in the sophistication of network infrastructure around the world is simply that great.
There’s no question that the prospect of having three generations of network technology operating at the same time is going to create headaches for carriers and operators alike, but perhaps the biggest impact will be felt by the equipment manufacturers. Accurately planning and provisioning network assets is difficult enough but when you add multi-vendor service contacts into the mix the pressure to maintain QoS rises exponentially.
The explosive growth we’re seeing in developing markets represents a tremendous opportunity for equipment manufacturers to drive revenue growth. But making the most of those new opportunities – and scaling for the future – requires implementing a more proactive approach to managing product data and physical network assets today.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The Mobile Data Deluge
Amidst a flurry of announcements from AT&T detailing their plans to further increase wireless network capacity, one statistic really stands out. Over the course of the last 3 years alone, wireless data traffic on AT&T’s network has increased more than 5000%. The driver behind this explosion of traffic is - of course - the smartphone and all of those handy applications we love to use so much and cannot live without.
Now combine that information with the results of a recent Cisco survey, which predicts that by 2014 the average mobile broadband connection will generate the equivalent of 3,500 MP3 music files per month, and it doesn’t take long to figure out what keeps carriers awake a night. Today, incidentally, the average mobile connection generates the equivalent of about 650 MP3 music files a month. If you think network infrastructure is churning at a high rate today, sit tight – you haven’t seen anything yet.
The mobile data explosion not only puts pressure on carriers from the perspective of service delivery requirements, but raises the stakes when it comes to recouping value from infrastructure investments. When the pace of change is this fast, it’s next to impossible for assets to fully depreciate in value. So, if a carrier doesn’t have visibility into those assets, and therefore the ability to either put them to use elsewhere, they are simply leaving money on the table. A proactive approach to ensuring consolidated visibility, picking up where OSS systems leave off, can fix that.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Greetings from Barcelona
The weather here in Spain has been on the cold and rainy side but that hasn’t dampened the energy inside the exhibition halls at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, we formally launched our new reuse optimization solution, Trade Wings Re: and the response thus far has been tremendous. It’s clear that the need within the carrier and OEM communities to put network assets to their highest and best use knows no boundaries. This is a challenge on a global basis.
From my perspective, two of the biggest business considerations I’ve heard this week driving the need for reuse strategies are (1) reducing operating expenses, and (2) preserving capital. Given the current economic climate, it’s not surprising that executives are focusing their attention on these areas. What’s the correlation between these drivers and reuse optimization? It’s all about the desire to optimize how operations and finance work collaboratively to manage inventory for the greatest return on investment.
Lacking visibility into inventory levels starts a chain reaction that can be difficult to stop. Not enough visibility forces companies to either buy and warehouse more equipment than is required, or make purchases when the need is most urgent, which means incurring significant ‘expedite’ fees. Both of these scenarios will inevitably lead to higher costs for procurement, equipment transportation and storage.
With visibility into global inventory levels – and the secondary market – a reuse strategy can be the springboard for more informed forecasting that can ensure you are buying and storing only the amount of equipment required to sufficiently support spares and repairs processes. It’s a message that has really resonated with Telecom executives this week. If you’d like to learn more about the impact of reuse strategies in the carrier market, check out our new whitepaper.
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