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 cloud computing has existed for a number of years, the concepts and workings it espouses have become increasingly popular recently, leading to some misunderstanding of what is encompassed under the term. Its definition remains quite wide, though service providers and enterprises have started to make concrete steps towards utilising its core components

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Mobile augmented reality allows computer-generated content to be superimposed over a live camera view of the world. The technology and its applications have been under development for a number of years, though it is in 2010 and that more applications are expected to proliferate on mobile devices, and monetisation of such services is expected to gain traction

Juniper Research says revenues from augmented reality are unlikely to exceed US$2 million in 2010, due to there being only a small minority of smartphones that are AR-enabled

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When Jorma Ollila stepped down as Nokia CEO and chairman in 2006, his successor was always going to find it challenging to maintain the levels of success Ollila brought to the Finnish telecom manufacturer in his 13-year reign. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was that successor, a Nokia insider seen as a safe pair of hands. However, what has transpired over the past four years indicates that a safe pair of hands is no longer enough to survive and thrive in a brutally competitive global handset market

Kallasvuo made a dignified exit from Nokia after the board lost confidence in his ability to defend the company’s position from mounting competitive threats (Getty Images)

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Mobile health (mHealth) is a growing vertical market around the world, though the size of the opportunities that exist are yet to be fully quantified. Gilles Fayad, director of business development, VAS, MENA at Qualcomm believes localisation of needs and solutions will be an integral component of the mass market take up of such services

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