03
01
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
With respect to digitalization, the telecommunications
companies (telcos) continue
to lag considerably behind market demand.
94% of the companies surveyed have already begun
developing initial digital business models or are implementing
them. As it currently stands, however, not a
single company has fully digitalized its business. One
thing is certain – companies in the telecommunications
industry will be compelled to digitalize their business
models and develop new ones no later than by 2020 if
they want to prevail in the market.
Cooperation agreements with
“over-the-top players” (OTTs) provide
new opportunities for the telcos.
OTTs are threatening the telcos’ conventional revenue
streams – given their strength, some providers virtually
feel forced to act. Who will come out on top in the market
for content – telcos or OTTs – has not yet been decided. To
win the race for content, telcos will have to be prepared
to invest a lot of money and develop a lot of insight into
a market they don’t know that well yet. With this in mind,
56% of the telcos surveyed believe that alliances with
OTTs will give them a shot at the future.
B2B partnerships will continuously increase
in importance.
As telcos can no longer generate adequate returns
through voice and data transmission, new monetization
models such as revenue sharing, platform fees and
advertising are coming to the fore. This shifts telcos’
focus from consumer business to revenue gained from
B2B business models. 93% of the study participants
confirm this. Platform models are becoming particularly
important for strategic success.
Telcos can use growth markets for their
own strategy.
The companies surveyed expect the strongest growth
leading up to 2022 to occur almost exclusively in the
B2B markets. Telcos are clearly in pole position for all
mobile solutions and for consolidating all of the “things”
that are to be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT)
in the coming years. Smart cities, smart home solutions
and autonomous driving are just some examples of
the potential applications. Here, revenue streams are
expected to come from B2B partners as well as from
consumers, because the latter participate in these new
value-added services, too. The IoT is expected to expand
by triple-digit growth rates.
Telcos have so far failed to make the most
out of Big Data.
Due to their customer structure and their business
model, telcos have huge quantities of customer data
at their disposal. Once telcos manage to fully leverage
the potential of the IoT environment as enablers, they
will have access to even more data points – an excellent
starting point for using Big Data as the basis for new
business models. So far, however, telcos have barely
been exploiting this potential. Many are merely experimenting
with using Big Data to optimize both sales
and the customer experience. Only 2 out of 5 of
the study participants are already monetizing data
externally through their companies. The study participants
singled out the successful linking of data from
numerous sources as the key to success in the development
of Big Data services.
On the whole, telcos enjoy an environment
well-suited to developing new business models –
on the basis of partnerships as well as in the
Big Data segment itself.
What matters right now is that they jump on this
opportunity quickly. If they succeed, telcos will play a
central role in numerous growth areas. Beyond pure
connectivity, however, the telecommunications industry
can leverage value-added services to play an important
role as an enabler for growth areas – and at the same
time ensure the future viability of their own business.