Prior to 2004, all GCC incumbents combined were operating in only six markets outside their home countries. Today, this number stands at 78, with government policies in GCC countries stimulating this drive for corporate globalisation. As the profitability and financial strength of GCC operators have grown, so too has competition in their home markets. This created a surge in globalisation, as operators sought growth through mergers and acquisitions. The disclosed value of GCC incumbents’ cross-border M&A activity between 2004 and 2009 exceeded US$33 billion.

Mohamad Mourad is principal at Booz & Company

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This year the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona had a much more optimistic feel towards the global telecom market, a contrast to the uncertainty that gripped the event in 2009. Mobile data; the continued development of great mobile applications; the growing importance of smartphones; the rallying call around LTE ; and the need to manage costs and optimise operations were amongst the main talking points this year

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Prior to January 1, 2010, the last time that Ericsson saw a change in leader was in 2003, a point where telecom infrastructure companies were reeling from the effects of the award of over-priced 3G licences, which had in fact nearly bankrupted an industry. Less than seven years on and the picture could not be more different as Hans Vestberg assumes the reins of a company with a solid financial base, enviable technology and market leadership positions, and an appetite to defend its dominance

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A year ago Comm. conducted a detailed interview with Vinod Kumar, the chief operating officer of the communications arm of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group. Kumar spoke of Tata Communications’ ambition to become known as an emerging market communications specialist, and one year on, at an event hosted in London, he and Tata Communications CEO, Srinath Narasimhan detailed how much closer the company is to achieving this vision

Srinath Narasimhan says Tata Communications is looking to build at least one new home market in addition to India and South Africa in the coming two-three years

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As Motorola moves ever closer to the separation of its mobile device division from its enterprise and networks division in Q12011, co-CEO in charge of Motorola Solutions, Greg Brown, believes the transaction cannot come soon enough. Brown’s eagerness can be understood by looking over Motorola’s Q110 financial results, which highlight how the company’s infrastructure and networking business continues to operate with the momentum necessary to compete successfully in a notoriously competitive space

Greg Brown says upon separation of Motorola Devices from Motorola Solutions, each business will be able to focus more effectively

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