Sturdy Business Models Needed

The price wars for fixed line telephony are raging. More and more customers reach for their cell phones or access the Internet to make their phone calls. At the same time, IP-based broadband networks, so-called Next Generation Networks, are opening up completely new channels for communication: they transmit voice, data, and video signals in any combination via a single network. Network operators see themselves confronted with a multitude of critical decisions: Which access technology will win the day? Will the trade with transmission capacities be profitable in the long run? Is there enough contact with the customer? How will the business model of the future look?

Detecon offers integrated management and technology consulting to global network operators. We provide support in the analysis, conception, selection, implementation, and operation of all types of communication platforms. This service includes the assessment of trends and usage scenarios for end user devices and systems for network management, operation support, and billing. At the same time, we develop pioneering business models and implement lean organizational structures. In individual cases, Detecon has invested in companies as part of the privatization or the new establishment of network operators.

Fixed Mobile Convergence Fixed Mobile Convergence
Mobility as the Norm
As fixed line and mobile networks continue to converge, mobile communications is completely losing its special status. Instead, mobility becomes the norm in convergent networks. Users can be reached at one telephone number via one end device, whether at a fixed place or on the go. Whether in the office, at home, or on the road, they always access the same services at the same quality. But this raises the demands made on network operators. They must establish new networks which replace the rigid linking of end devices, services, and contracts for the providers, and which enable offers sourced from different services and providers for the customers.

ICT Cost Efficiency and Infrastructure Consolidation ICT Cost Efficiency and Infrastructure Consolidation
IT on Demand
The half-life values of IT landscapes are becoming shorter under the pressures of technical progress and the dynamics of global markets. Nevertheless, convergent IP networks and the price drops in broadband technologies offer companies an especially good opportunity to consolidate their information technology right now. Long-term ICT strategies therefore rely on IP platforms so that services such as the hosting of desktop and corporate applications or voice over IP can be implemented. Moreover, a unified IP infrastructure simplifies the outsourcing of standardizable services, so that economies of scale can be enjoyed by specialized service providers. The result is ICT on demand and better service for the company’s core processes.

ICT-Enabled High Performance Organization ICT-Enabled High Performance Organization
From Technician to Process Manager
CIOs have taken on a new role: as process specialists, they are expected to make the greatest possible contribution to added value. Tasks such as system operation and desktop services can be delegated, but not the knowledge of processes and the flexible use of ICT resources. Logically enough, many companies are doing away with their own computer centers, server farms, and software parks. As standardization progresses, they draw these services, flexibly and as needed, from data networks. The CIOs act instead as designers of ICT-supported processes: for example, by linking ERP master data and local guideline documentation within a portal during the installation of worldwide compliance management, shortening the service processes by a significant factor.

IMS Strategy and SDP Strategy IMS Strategy and SDP Strategy
Standards and Technologies in the Networks of the Future
What standards will become established in the convergent multiservice networks of the third generation? Should carriers open their networks to competitors and third-party providers of added-value services as architectures become more open? What demands will markets and regulators make on service delivery platforms used by the network operators to provide and market telecommunications services? The convergence potential is far from being exhausted as shown by the mobile network cards from supermarkets or television on the cell phone. In the future, providers will be faced with the task of interconnecting various networks, services, devices, and billing services. The customer will then receive a portfolio of consistently high quality services tailored precisely to his or her needs.

Multi-play Strategies Multi-play Strategies
Packaging Multimedia Offers to Suit the Customer
Powerful and flexible structures are required to offer customers video signals, data, voice, and mobile telephony in any combination over one network. Network operators and service providers become especially customer friendly when they deliver new products without delay which customers can then combine themselves according to their own preferences. Infrastructures must separate the application, transport, and access levels from one another to serve as the basis for such communications services. Moreover, efficient organizational models are demanded which, for example, tightly integrate development and coordination processes between and within all business divisions.

Multi-Service Network Planning and Management Multi-Service Network Planning and Management
With the convergence to a common IP platform network operators and service providers set theirselves targets such as increased flexibility and efficiency, future-proof investments, reduction of operational cost, and also transparency in the planning and the network management. If a legacy strict separation of, for example, voice, data, and transport network is being overcome, the complexity to be coped by the individual telecommunications engineer will grow as well. Detecon offers customized software solutions for the planning and the documentation of convergent multi-service networks.

NGN Services Innovation and Platform Migration NGN Services Innovation and Platform Migration
Services of the Next Generation
Next Generation Networks (NGN) offer multimedial services of all types via a standard, IP-based network and permit the flexible integration of processes. Service platforms and user devices can be used independently of one another. Nor does it play a role whether the end device receives the services via fixed line network, ISDN, WiMAX, DVB-H, UMTS, or some other standard. Service creation tools enable the design and engineering of convergent applications such as a multimedial, Internet-supported sales meeting. An efficient migration strategy takes into account all major business drivers before the establishment of an NGN and describes its financial, service-oriented, technical, and organizational dependencies.

Seamless End-to-End ICT Service Management Seamless End-to-End ICT Service Management
The Customer’s Vision: All of the Services on All of the Media
“Seamless Communication” – The oft-quoted universal communication using all user devices and service platforms remains a great challenge. The integration of various technologies, the realization of the necessary roaming scenarios, and uniform billing and access procedures are still at the beginning of their development. Very few players are capable of handling all of this on their own. That is why cooperation is the buzzword of the hour, especially since the borders between fixed line and mobile network operators, Internet service providers, radio and television stations, and other content providers and distribution partners are becoming increasingly blurred.

Telco Startup and Performance Management Telco Startup and Performance Management
More Service with Even More Quality
Startups in the telecommunications industry find themselves in a quandary. Thanks to digital network technologies, the chances of being successful with good business ideas are better than ever before. New products and services can be launched on the market within a very short period of time, gaining a competitive advantage. But at the same time, the prices for telco services are falling rapidly, growth rates are shrinking to normal levels, competitive pressures are rising. In view of this general situation, it is important to set yourself apart from the competition through optimal service and quality features and to retain maximum flexibility. The decisive tool to achieve this is optimal performance management which can keep costs and quality under control at all times and quickly realize product and service innovations.

Telco Value Chain Transformation and VNO Business Models Telco Value Chain Transformation and VNO Business Models
Opportunity or Risk?
Do the new players who do not have their own network infrastructure take away sales and profit margin from those who have borne the brunt of the investments? Or do they mobilize additional market potential? One thing is clear: additional differentiation features are required so that price is not the sole argument. Moreover, bundled fixed line and mobile network services are in demand. As protocols become increasingly open and the integration of various services becomes easier and easier, the value chain also undergoes changes. For example, the increasingsubstitution by VoIP for voice traffic appears imminent for mobile networks. This will also result in new requirements for the optimization of processes and distribution paths.

Contact

Phone:
+49 228 7001602

Fax:
+49 228 7002237

Send e-mail

Networks planning and optimization

More information

Networks documentation and management

More information

References

Summa Holding, Summa Telecom PT Telkom Indonesia Etisalat Misr More references

Publications

Corporate Responsibility (PDF, 72 KB)
Catching the hen’s egg - moving pictures on mobiles (PDF, 207 KB)
Photonic Packet Switching (PDF, 473 KB)

More publications