University of Management & Technology

Lahore

Strategic Marketing

Value Drivers of Telecom Industry

Submitted to:
Mr. Zeeshan Shoukat

Submitted by:
Muhammad Touseef Afzal
S2019273011 (MBA-P)
 VALUE DRIVERS OF TELECOM INDUSTRY
The telecom industry is rapid evolving, shaped by the evolution of technology and light-speed
innovation. It is also an industry that is constantly redefining itself. This presents communication
providers with both opportunities to expand their business reach and threats from the entry of a
myriad of nimble and aggressive new players. Competition here is at its best! Currently, five main
forces shape the future of telecoms:
 Mobile Money;
 Machine to Machine;
 Cloud offerings;
 Over The Top (OTT) players;
 LTE and the convergence to an all-IP network.
They are all emerging, albeit at different paces and at different stages. But they interact with
each other in a complex thread of dependencies, driving the evolution of our industry.
Let’s go through them and see how.

Mobile Money & Machine to Machine

The first two forces, mobile money and machine-to-machine bring in additional business,
allowing communication providers to pursue new revenue streams. They also fundamentally
change the perception of what communication means. While mobile money introduces
communication transactions worth hundreds or even thousands of Euros, machine-to-machine
introduces… machines, in either ends of the communication line!
Both mobile money and machine-to-machine are industry forces that are growing at very
high rates: more than 160 live mobile money projects and 100 planned deployments1; different
analysts forecast 10 to 50 billion of connected devices by 2020, up from 1 billion in 2010.

Cloud Offerings
Cloud offerings are thriving opportunities for cost reduction, CAPEX into OPEX
transformation, and reaching new client segments and businesses. They also enable a digitally
enabled world, serving as the base for most of the OTT players, social networks, or even M2M
platforms. The cloud not only paves the way for communication providers to expand their
businesses as cloud services enablers or providers, but it also fosters efficiency, as communications
providers benefit from outsourcing part of their non-core operations to external providers over the
cloud.
OTT Players
OTT players such as social networks or VOIP players are the fourth force. And what a
force! As the industry redefines itself and expands, these new players are riding the digital wave
of the all-connected, anytime anywhere, and creating valuable ecosystems on top of the
communication networks and infrastructure.
Unfortunately, this game is not played on a level playing field. While OTT players generate
a lot of traffic to the communication providers, they seldom share any meaningful part of the
revenues they are able to raise. More often, they compete with the communication providers at the
very core of their business - communication services, built on additional amenities such as contact
management, location, gaming, or social intercourse.

LTE, the all IP-Network & the inexorable Big Data

The fifth force is the global and unrelenting move to an all-IP network, made possible by
the LTE. This is a key enabler of the other forces, fostering the growth of peer-to-peer
communications and transactions. This leads to a separation between bearers and services,
threatening the communication providers with further distance from the ultimate business and
added-value layers.