• The Telco 2.0™ 'Business Model Map' - Revealed
• Mobile Advertising - The Opportunity is Off-Portal
• Business Model Map Part 2 - Bits vs Money
• Digital Worker Market – More Telco Inspiration please
• Business Model Map Part 3 - Ten years of turmoil
• Voice & Messaging 2.0 – Real lessons from Skype and Yahoo!
• Business Model Map Part 4 - Action stations!

The Telco 2.0™ 'Business Model Map' - Revealed

In the last 'Telco 2.0™ Update' we introduced the concept of a 'Business Model Map' to guide telcos and their partners through the unchartered waters of an IP-based world which is profoundly affecting business models. Below we reveal more elements of the Map. We will be discussing these issues, and more, with industry leaders at the Telco 2.0 Industry Brainstorm at the end of March in London. (More...)

Mobile Advertising - The Opportunity is Off-Portal

Our new market study, Telcos' Role in the Advertising Value Chain (produced in partnership with the GSMA),shows that the real opportunity for operators is to act as an enabler for greater advertising (on-line and mobile) efficiency. The big money isn't in ad-funded services, discounting existing telco services with advertising. This latter market will become overly competitive and operators have too much to lose. Sizing the two markets is difficult but we've made some estimates here (More...)

Business Model Map Part 2 - Bits vs Money

There is a tension between the technical and economic design decisions in building networks: Network providers want value-based pricing for traffic and the knowledge of what's flowing over the network; users want a free ride and to hide what they're up to. To reconcile these contradictions we need to keep the network relatively dumb. To maintain a rational economic model, operators need to be able to assemble a portfolio of business models for paying off the network. We need to consider this in new ways. (More...)

Digital Worker Market – More Telco Inspiration please

There should be a significant growth opportunity for telcos in the business market, especially the SME segment. But it's a challenge – partly due to current perceptions of end-users (knowledge worker) needs, but also to confusion about what to sell, and how to sell it. We've created a 'hypothesis' for how this market needs to be re-considered, and will be debating this in the Digital Worker stream at the Telco 2.0 Brainstorm. Speakers from BT, Cisco, Intel, Iotum, Nokia, and others. (More...)

Business Model Map Part 3 - Ten years of turmoil

Today's telecosm is split bi-modally: 1.) Full vertical integration of technology and payment for "traditional" telephony and SMS messaging, 2.) Broadband Internet access. Our analysis shows that this will quickly disintegrate into a plethora of new business models - 'P2P Content Delivery Networks', 'Municipal Networks', 'Personal Area Networks', 'IMS/QoS-based', 'Connectivity-Embedded Devices' and (the shark's fin in the water) 'Tiered Connectivity'. But two big growth stories will dominate: advertising-enablement and ad-funded services/connectivity and service-funded connectivity. As fixed and mobile converges, here is some guidance on how to plan for this world. (More...)

Voice & Messaging 2.0 – Real Lessons from Skype and Yahoo!

Network operators have never really had to understand the true needs of their voice and messaging customers, or significantly innovate in what they offer. But the internet has dramatically raised the stakes. Our new research report (Voice & Messaging 2.0) has shown considerable lack of confidence in how to defend these core revenue sources. However, we believe there are new opportunities to grow business in this crucial space. (More...)

Business Model Map Part 4 - Action stations

Operators need to break up the broadband business model, horizontally and vertically. Horizontally break it into tiers: a.) free (ad-funded), b.) subload (e.g. backups), c.) standard best-effort, d.) priority and e.) full "QoS assured". Vertically slice it so it can be packaged with devices or services (“postage and packing included”). The ability to perpetuate value-based pricing is going to keep telcos in a strong position in an IP-based world. Slicing up the offering, combined with precision-pricing and packaging will be crucial to bringing all kinds of internal and external innovation to market. (More...)

Created by:

© STL Partners 2007