Today, new telecom technologies, globalisation, increased competition, and increased customer mobility have radically changed ways people communicate. Telecom operators around the world are in a race to offer customers a multiplicity of converging services/products at equally attractive and competitive prices. Today, many operators, especially incumbents, are struggling to fight new entrants, to win new customers, to reduce customer churn, and to protect their dramatically eroded profits (declining revenues versus increasing marketing and customer management expenses). Today, operators are on average losing 8-10 per cent of their customers each year. To minimise their losses of revenue and/or explore new revenue opportunities, telecom operators have to re-think their marketing and customer retention strategies and practices.

Mohamed Jamoussi is a senior advisor for Saudi Telecom (STC)

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Francesco Burelli, principal of Value Partners in London and Zoran Vasiljev, managing director of Value Partners (MEA), offer their insight into the opportunities that exist in the mobile payments sphere

Zoran Vasiljev, managing director of Value Partners (MEA)

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Across many emerging markets today, there is a heightened focus on efficiency in spending as operators pursue strategies to achieve capex and opex savings in their operations. For emerging market operators, many of whom are in the process of further network rollout; rural expansion and its associated higher capex per erlang is forcing through alternative solutions to keep down their costs per minute. Tower spin-offs and leasing from independent third-party tower companies is one such option, increasingly making the headlines. This form of network sharing not only limits the absolute cost of coverage in rural areas but also improves the economics enough to make it viable.

Devine Kofiloto is a consultant with Deccocon, an independent consulting business focused on emerging markets

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While social networking explodes and consumers transfer their daily web habits to the mobile phone mobile network infrastructures, previously thought capable of handling consistently heavy traffic, are now showing strain under the torrent of new data they carry every day. No one expects network congestion to abate, and what is being done about it is being met with mixed reaction. On the horizon is 4G; marketed as the “miracle cure for data congestion”, it is considered by some as a band-aid solution and by others a universal panacea.

Patrick Lopez is chief marketing officer of Vantrix

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Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Motorola today jointly announced that the companies have entered into an agreement under which NSN will acquire the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure assets for US $1.2 billion in cash. The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010.

As part of the transaction, NSN expects to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and to strengthen its position with China Mobile, Clearwire, KDDI, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.

NSN expects that based on revenue, with the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business, it will become the #3 wireless infrastructure vendor in the United States, the #1 foreign wireless vendor in Japan, and strengthen its current #2 position in the global infrastructure segment.

“This is an exciting acquisition that I believe has significant benefits for customers, employees and our shareholders,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of NSN. “NSN will see the benefits of a deal that is expected to enhance profitability and cash-flow and to have significant upside potential.”

“Motorola is very proud of the operational and financial performance of our Networks business and its employees, who will now become a valuable addition to NSN,” commented Greg Brown, Co-CEO of Motorola. “We are excited to have reached this agreement to combine our Networks team with such an industry leader.”

Motorola’s networks infrastructure business extends to GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE.

Around 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to NSN from Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large R&D sites in the US, China and India. Motorola retains the iDEN business, substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets.

NSN’s Suri, who was appointed CEO last September, says the acquisition will enhance profitability and cash-flow, as well as have significant upside potential

NSN and Motorola also are exploring a global relationship in the public safety arena. This relationship would combine Motorola’s leadership in providing solutions to public safety organisations with Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercial LTE solutions.

Just last month, Bruce Brda, Motorola’s senior vice president and general manager of Home & Networks Mobility at Motorola told Comm. that as a standalone business, Motorola’s network business generated revenues amounting to US$4.9 billion in 2009, making it amongst the smaller members of the highly competitive global telecom infrastructure suppliers’ club.

Smaller annual revenues meant smaller amounts that could be invested in R&D, meant less opportunity to take leadership positions in new technologies and developments, meant being faced with the potential of a shrinking market share. Brda said he was aware of such constraints but believed Motorola’s strategy to focus on the customers it already services, and focus on technologies in which it already enjoyed strong positions in, would be the correct one to assume in its post-separation life.