Thoughts from Subex
The first half of the year has been an exciting one in the network asset domain. Conversations around network sharing, which we have captured a glimpse of, continue to be prevalent, which further resonates with the thoughts echoed by Brian Barnell, Managing Director, FierceWireless, last year. It will be interesting how this trend grows in the coming months, as network infrastructure itself continues to evolve.
Another interesting trend we are seeing, and this stems further from our conversations with customers is the rising number of contracts CSPs have to deal with. Had this newsletter covered the new vendor deals CSPs are signing, the newsletter would only cover deal announcements. But that just shows us just how vital Contract Management is becoming, considering the news only covers the big announcements. In reality, these contracts easily go above and beyond the 1k figure, and CSPs are looking at ways to improvise and alleviate this challenge. BT has captured some of the risks associated with contract management, and it shows that this problem is quite real.
On that note, here the first and latest version of our Network Asset Management Newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.
Top News from the Sector
Unlocking and Building Value in Telecom
What does it mean that three of the highest-return telecom companies over the past five years are not real telecom companies? Could there be any clearer signal that the industry is under the sway of fundamental transformation than the fact that three tower companies—companies that own passive telecom infrastructure—generated higher shareholder returns from 2015 to 2019 than almost all operators? The apparent moral here is that it’s more profitable to own passive telecom assets than to operate wireless services.
https://www.bcg.com/en-in/publications/2020/tmt-value-creators-unlocking-building-value-telecom.aspx
Airtel and Sercomm launch virtualized TDD small cell
Hailed as the world’s first and jointly developed by the two companies, the small cell offers a plug-and-play approach for the cloud radio network connection and will deliver enhanced efficiencies. “At Airtel, we are obsessed with our customers and adding value to their lives with our offerings,” said Randeep Sekhon (pictured), CTO of Bharti Airtel.
https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3825433/airtel-and-sercomm-launch-virtualised-tdd-small-cell
SDN eases pandemic’s telecom burden
Software-defined networking played an important role in supporting the massive work-from-home response to the pandemic in the last few months, according to some carrier members of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Council (NSTAC).
https://gcn.com/articles/2020/05/15/sdn-pandemic-network-traffic.aspx
Deep dive: what’s the deal with network sharing?
5G is on the horizon, and it has the telcos scrambling. Upgrading telecoms infrastructure is going to be a very expensive job, ranging from fibering up a nation to purchasing active infrastructure for sites and even paying for civil engineering jobs; building passive infrastructure is not cheap! Telcos need a way to make the financials of the telecoms future work.
https://telecoms.com/501903/deep-dive-whats-the-deal-with-network-sharing/
Insights from your peers
As per the 2019 annual report, Vodafone Group has put a clear strategic priority on improving asset utilization to improve return on capital.
As per the 2019 annual report, AT&T is targeting to monetize $5-$10 billion of non-core assets by 2020. On the other hand, AT&T expects to invest gross capital of $20 billion. Which means half of the investment money they are expecting to receive from monetizing the non-core assets. https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-reports/annual-reports/2019/complete-2019-annual-report.pdf
As per the 2019 annual report, Telefonica has set a goal to reduce energy consumption per unit of data traffic by 85% in 2025. Towards this initiative, they will initiate ‘Network Transformation’ programs specifically to shutdown legacy networks https://www.telefonica.com/documents/162467/141705152/Consolidated-Annual-Accounts-2019.pdf/2532d380-3cfd-5d90-d0d8-a475f7a4251f
As per the 2019 annual report, BT has highlighted the risks associated with high-value contracts and potential impact on business.
report, Bell has sighted the risk of hindering operational efficiency followed by dissatisfied customers due to the presence of a large number of interconnected B/OSS platforms in their ecosystem. Then they talked about implementing an operating framework to introduce the required governance in the near future.
https://www.bce.ca/investors/AR-2019/2019-bce-annual-report.pdf
See how industry leaders are redefining wholesale for the digital era! Watch the Full Webinar Recording
Subex is a leading telecom analytics solution provider and leveraging its solution in areas such as Revenue Assurance, Fraud Management, Partner Management, and IoT Security.