We've all heard it before - it's no longer about the network; it's the services and the customer. The key to introducing quality services is partnerships to move up the value chain to become more valuable to customers. At the same time, the proliferation of IT-based services accessible on multiple screens - mobile phone, television and PC - requires a focus on improving customer intimacy and accelerating service innovation.
The second issue of Global Telecom CEO asks telecoms executives to jump forward five years and picture the telco of 2013. While opinions differ widely over what it will take to thrive, the consensus points to innovation, partnerships (including software and hardware vendors), scale and speed to market.
In the CEO Roundtable Norihiko Minato from AT&T says that successful communications companies will need strong content partnerships. Nokia Siemens Network's Joe Doering agrees, arguing that only through collaboration between operators and the media industry will they be able to ensure a consistently high quality of multimedia services and the delivery of the right content in the right format to end-users.
He says operators will increasingly turn to strategic alliance management and technology risk management tools to ensure that they partner with the right companies that will enable them to substantially improve their level of end-user service.
Executives also say telecom services are becoming increasingly software driven, and the trend toward fixed-mobile convergence (a reality by 2013!) requires equipment suppliers to take away the layers and complexity of the network.
In addition to the CEO Roundtable, you'll find commentary from analysts at Accenture, McKinsey and Yankee Group, as well as executive interviews with Hong Kong mobile operator CSL and Oracle Communications.