Telco opportunity for Next Generation Revenue
Telcos and ISPs have traditionally offered connectivity bundled with infrastructure services such as hosting of email, web or FTP disk space.
Over the years there has been a shift for obtaining core infrastructure services from Telcos to one of the newer web 2.0 entrants, where the success of broadband penetration has been a catalyst in adoption.
The trend of new entrants dominating technology services space is likely to continues as Cloud Computing takes off, leaving the Telco to contend to merely providing connectivity.
Unfortunately, many operators are facing downwards pressure to reduce the rental on connectivity while increasing capacity. This has resulted in a mediocre ARPU and lowering of customer stickiness, where customer retention over a long period has become a challenge. Furthermore, while voice based revenue is expected to grow in the foreseeable future, the migration to VOIP based services is bound to be a disruptive force.
To remain relevant in a crowded services market, Telcos will need to proactively explore and adapot new technologies. Fortunately technology is in a transitional period of “run all your apps inhouse” to “run it on the cloud”. This provides an opportunity for Telcos to make a compelling argument for why their customers should run their apps on a Telco cloud.
According to IDC, a leading analyst, Cloud Computing continues to disrupt overall IT expenditure of enterprises, where majority will be spent on migrating existing application functionality and adopting new applications on the cloud. The next big growth area is in data services by being able to synchronize one’s data across a multitude of devices ranging from desktops to mobiles to tablets.
Another survey conducted by IDC involving SMEs suggests that the #1 domain for Cloud Computing applications is in Collaboration applications. Most businesses are realizing the power of collaborations and social networking with their customers and partners can have a positive impact on the bottom line.
Collaboration domain is followed by web based applications, Data backup and sync services and Business applications on the cloud, all of which have a cost effective “pay as you go” model that is quite attractive.
The main business proposition to Telco providers using the thinkCube platform is to enable them to offer services which are driving growth in the industry by localizing such network services within the Telco’s own Cloud and hence increase their ARPU and provide a better quality of service to the end user.