DigitalRoute, has released the results of its DigitalRoute Telco Industry Survey 2015, which presented 3,000 telco decision-makers with its own 2015 predictions for the industry, and asked them to agree, disagree and explain why. A significant majority agree with DigitalRoute on several key points, including that telecoms and OTTs must partner in order to survive, there must be a renewed industry-wide focus on improving the customer experience, and that the adoption of technologies such as cloud computing and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) will be slower than their vendors expect.
The resulting report, “DigitalRoute Telco Industry Survey 2015- Final Report” is available to view and download now on the DigitalRoute web site.
“After making our bold predictions in November, including some that ran directly counter to the hype coming from many vendors and industry watchers, we wondered whether telco executives actually in the trenches agreed with us. It’s gratifying to know a significant majority do,” said Lars Mansson, senior director PM & Strategy at DigitalRoute.
The first DigitalRoute prediction survey respondents were asked to consider was: “NFV is overhyped – it will take off in 2016, not 2015.” 77 percent of respondents agreed with that statement, adding that network infrastructure is too critical to be virtualised, and that standardisation and key design agreements need to be established.
74 percent also agree with DigitalRoute’s prediction that “cloud-enabled OSS and BSS solutions will become table stakes as apps start to move into the cloud in 2015.” Respondents called OSS and BSS too critical to leave in the cloud, and expect that only markets and segments where scale is not an issue will look to leverage the cloud.
Telecoms have clearly made customer service a top priority for 2015. 90 percent of respondents agree with the DigitalRoute prediction that “the need to deliver better customer experience will result in OSS being reshaped and new applications that leverage network data will emerge.” The consensus is that the next evolution will be OSS data analysis driving business outcomes, and that being customer-centric will be the key to next generation telco.
“We also expect telcos to work harder to earn their customers’ trust and loyalty. We believe that operators who are transparent about issues like data usage will be the winners, and three out of four of the decision-makers we surveyed agreed. They realise customers have little idea how to measure service or understand what want, and as long as operators are only seen as a commodity, there will be no trust,” added Mansson.
The report also finds OTTs will realise they have to work closely with telcos, primarily because net neutrality will ensure what DigitalRoute calls “walled gardens” will have to disappear. Telcos that cling to the idea that net neutrality is temporary are doomed to become bitpipes. Best-in-class outcomes will be the result of collaboration.
“The survey suggests that we are broadly realistic about how the telco industry will shape up in the coming year. There is widespread recognition that industry change is coming but despite vendor hype, it will take time to happen, and the customer stands to benefit the most,” said Mansson.
