Telecoms will need to remain vigilant about cost control in...
Telecoms will need to remain vigilant about cost control in order to offset “relatively flat” revenue growth during the next five years, research firm Ovum said Tuesday. Telecom revenue will grow just 2 percent annually through the end of 2018…
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due to increased competition from over-the-top providers, continued consumer focus on devices and apps rather than services, as well as low consumer tolerance for “usage-sensitive billing”; cutbacks in capital expenditures (capex) help, but only go so far, Ovum said. “Service providers will keep a tight rein on their capex budgets, but they do need to spend heavily on technology -- both their customers and the competition demand this,” said Matt Walker, Ovum’s principal network infrastructure analyst, in a news release. “What’s changing is that operators are more smartly attacking their operating expense (opex) budgets, which opens new opportunities for vendors.” Opex savings can come in the areas of network rollout, network operations, network optimization, customer experience and service quality management, Ovum said. Such internal opex costs total $126 billion for the telecom industry. “If you're an operator, this is a huge cost that needs to be managed,” Walker said. “As operators look to lower operating risks and their cost bases, one option is additional services projects that involve the transfer of employees” (http://xrl.us/bobvpc).