Advising on the commercial impact of technology and
    market changes in telecoms, software and IT services

TeliaSonera is on a growth path but competition is intensifying in emerging markets. The company has established a strong footprint in emerging markets but declining domestic fixed revenues have become a key concern.

Ovum surveyed the majority of North America's largest backhaul players to understand their strategies regarding media types used to supply cell-site backhaul.

On 17 March 2010, the FCC will propose to Congress a redirection of monies from the Universal Services Fund (USF) to the national broadband program to bring high-speed Internet access to the masses. The USF generates about $8 billion a year in funding.

4Q09 saw a resurgence in carrier IP spending, putting IP infrastructure equipment back on a growth trajectory after two flat quarters. Revenue was $3.2 billion for 4Q09, up 20% sequentially but down 3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Alain Pellerin is a customer-facing technical consultant at VBCM, a Chinese manufacturer of control systems. VBCM is a large company with global operations. Alain is based in the French subsidiary branch in a north-west suburb of Paris.

Principal Analyst Julien Grivolas gives an update on ZTE's LTE strategy and explains why LTE offers an opportunity for the Chinese vendor to expand its footprint in Western countries.

In China, enterprises are beginning to show increasing demand for enterprise mobility for reasons such as higher affordability, greater potential for customization, and easier deployment.

This spreadsheet contains forecasts for FTTx optical components.

Adoption of e-learning and coaching solutions in the contact center is on the rise. These solutions are typically sold as part of a workforce optimization suite but are also provided as standalone point solutions.

The UK is the most advanced market for handset recycling. Around 8 million devices were recycled in 2009. This is double what was recycled two years ago. The value chain has become more complex and the market place more competitive.

ICT services revenues increased by 2.1% in 4Q09 after four consecutive periods of decline. Telecom infrastructure, SITS, and consulting all grew by 2 to 2.3%. Infrastructure services leaders were Cisco, T-Systems, Ericsson, NSN, and Alcatel-Lucent.

PCCW maintains a dominant position in the Hong Kong fixed-line market. As competition intensifies in Hong Kong's key markets, PCCW is gearing up to the fight with its unique quad-play offering and new multimedia product.

Governments are moving increasingly towards shared services as a model for delivering common applications and IT infrastructure services. Shared services strategies are typically pursued to drive cost savings and reduce operational diversity.

Australian mobile operator data & KPIs including connections, growth, service revenues, EBITDA, ARPU, voice and data, mobile broadband, technology, retail brands, MVNO/wholesale, prepaid & post-paid, voice & SMS usage and splits, and device shipments.

The introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) has been long awaited in India. MNP will open up competition, but the benefits for the majority of customers are marginal. Adoption will therfore be limited to a relatively small segment of customers.

The debate over net neutrality has largely focused on regulatory issues, rather than what steps operators who wish to prioritize services or reduce network loads might actually take. Content delivery networks (CDNs) could have an important role to play.

There is much to play for but also at stake for Microsoft once Windows Phone 7 Series devices make it into the market in late 2010. The new platform marks a sea change in Microsoft's strategy towards the mobile phone market.

Mobile/wireless technology split forecast pack, including total GSM family, 2G GSM, WCDMA, HSPA, LTE, TD-SCDMA, total CDMA family, cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1XRTT, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Mobile WiMAX, and Other.

Mobile/wireless voice and data forecast pack covering total connections; total voice and data ARPU & revenues; and minutes of usage.

Mobile regional and country forecast pack for total, prepaid, voice and data connections; connections by technology; total, voice and data ARPU & revenues; and minutes of usage.

The Polish telecoms market has seen significant activity in 2009. With the entry of two new mobile network operators (MNOs) as well as several mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), competition in the mobile market is expected to intensify.

Most large enterprises now have a federal style of ICT organization, comprising a federation of ICT functions at corporate, divisional, and business unit levels. The CIO role in these organizations is challenging, with CIOs acting like the ringmaster.

Ovum's new bi-annual NGA tracker provides you with key insights into the development of fixed high-speed broadband. It contains detailed rollout and investment information on individual markets and leading market players.

Ovum's new bi-annual NGA tracker provides you with key insights into the development of fixed high-speed broadband. It contains detailed rollout and investment information on individual markets and leading market players.

We count the number of smartphone models by software platform with the following capabilities: GPS, CPU type, GPU, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, WCDMA, EV-DO, DLNA, UPnP, TV-Out, Flash Lite, Qt, Silverlight, mobile AIR, widgets and pre-installed app store client.

With a small existing services sector and excellent English language skills among the population, front-office outsourcers could potentially use Honduras as part of a regional diversification strategy.

Through services such as OnStar and local search sites such as Yelp, Citysearch, Qype and Tipped, consumers have begun to acclimatize to the idea that applications can add value by using location information drawn from a GPS device or a mobile phone.

With the world's economies expected to return to growth in 2010, we examine how the economic downturn has impacted service providers and how they are shaping up for recovery.

US broadband stimulus funding has shifted in favor of "middle-mile" projects rather than last-mile (access) projects. Though optical transport vendors stand to gain a bigger piece of the pie than access vendors in the near term, more spending is to come.

Release 2 of Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor is a major update, and makes the virtualization platform suitable for a much wider range of mid-range deployments. However, Hyper-V still does not match the functionality of its VMware and Citrix equivalents.

Turkcell has done well to retain its position as the dominant operator in the highly contested mobile market in Turkey. Going forward, increasing mobile penetration and declining margins will continue to be key challenges.

Mobile industry players congregated in Barcelona last week for the Mobile World Congress. As always, there was a raft of announcements around mobile value-added services and industry initiatives to develop new services and generate new revenue streams.

The overriding message to come out of this year's Mobile World Congress was that the mobile ecosystem is in a state of rapid, turbulent transition, with the inflexion point over who will dominate the content and applications value chain.

Presentation, comparison and analysis of the world's top telcos' financial and operational KPIs for 3Q09.

Telstra's priorities are to capture large network outsourcing deals and grow revenues on network applications and services. It is building a future service delivery platform based on IP multimedia subsystems as a key source of competitive advantage.

This spreadsheet contains forecasts of WAN revenues, unit volumes, and ASPs for optical component vendors.

40G line-side shipments grew through 1H09 but fell in 3Q09. We see evidence of inventory. Three major modulation formats and a mix of discretes, transponders, and linecards continue to fragment the line-side market. Client-side 40G shipments declined.

T-Mobile is the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom and is one of the largest mobile operating groups, particularly across Central and Eastern Europe. T-Mobile's operations have seen some turbulent times due to the economic downturn and increasing competition

Emerging markets are considered attractive for telecoms investment. However, their wholesale markets are still in their early stages of evolution as carriers mainly offer traditional wholesale voice and capacity services.

Little could have prepared Ian Livingston for the turbulence BT has endured during the period since his appointment as CEO in 2008. Providing a steady return on investment for shareholders is proving to be more difficult than he could have anticipated.

Global IT consulting firms have spent the better part of 2009 trying to regain momentum. The global recession hit consulting firms harder than most, as many CIOs and IT managers were forced to cut discretionary projects to reduce costs.

The three Chinese operators have been readying their smartphone portfolios and services since the 3G licences were awarded in 2009. Here we analyse the different smartphone strategies of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

Nokia and Intel are merging their respective Linux initiatives to create a common software platform targeted at a broad range of connected consumer electronics. The real prize from a financial point of view is in tying developers to the MeeGo platform.

At the end of January 2010, Germany's highest administrative court released a ruling removing the obligation on incumbent Deutsche Telekom to provide access to its VDSL dark fibre. This deregulation will promote DT's fibre investment in the long term.

Jamaica has long been considered a niche delivery market for contact center services, but is now promoting itself as a destination for broader BPO and IT functions.

In Australia, mobile broadband connections for netbooks, laptops, PCs and other devices grew around 81% in the year to December 2009. However, competition is fierce, service differentiation is difficult and operators must continue investing in capacity.

Orascom is one of the most diverse telecoms players to come out of emerging markets in recent years, with operations from Algeria to North Korea. With a strong focus on value, it is good at delivering high returns for its stakeholders.

This spreadsheet provides global DSLAM and CMTS ports, revenue, and market share by region and on a rolling 4Q basis.

RIM has announced the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, a simplified version of its platform tailored for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Comparison of retail/wholesale and interconnect charges for Europe and the Americas, 4Q09.

Our estimates indicate strong carrier IP spending during 4Q09, putting IP infrastructure equipment back on a growth trajectory after two flat quarters. Preliminary global service provider switching and routing equipment revenue was $3.2 billion.

Operator-operator franchises in the mobile telecoms industry are not new as leading players have licensed their brand or branded products to other market players for more than ten years. In this report, we examine the benefits and challenges of the model

Preliminary results indicate that global DSL shipments fell 4% in 4Q09, while CMTS volumes grew by 15% on the back of a significant surge in North America. In DSL market share, Huawei finally wrested first place from Alcatel-Lucent on a rolling 4Q basis.