Telcos Without Networks

Network infrastructure has long been the telco business's cash cow. In recent years, this cow has suffered from a poor diet as the result of pricing pressure, network overloads, and nontelco companies invading its grazing pastures. Network infrastructure is the basis for all funding of telco activities; as such, telcos must not only keep the cash cow alive, but also strengthen it. Management of network infrastructure is easily belittled as a subject for engineering nerds — but it must be treated as a key strategic matter. Outsourcing the management of network infrastructure delivers many benefits, and we expect telcos to do this more and more in the years ahead. This report describes how telcos can balance the simultaneous requirements of cost control, enhanced business flexibility, and innovation to incorporate the right approach to external network infrastructure management into their future strategies and what equipment vendors must do to keep up with traditional IT services providers.