The accelerating market for digital services means most telcos are at risk of falling behind more agile DSPs. Dominic Smith considers how telcos can make the move to horizontal architectures and regain that competitive edge.
The telecoms industry has traditionally been run based on vertical integration with one entity not just owning and operating the network infrastructure, but also delivering the services and managing the customer relationships. However, the shift to high-speed data networks (fixed and mobile) has opened a whole new world of digital services that are already being delivered independently from the networks that carry them.
Furthermore, end users have become both consumers and producers of data (e.g. YouTube). Within such an ecosystem, a vertically integrated approach with dedicated network infrastructure for each service is inefficient, and telcos that continue to follow this model are at risk of falling further and further behind their more agile digital competitors.
Cerillion plc (LON:CER) is a leading provider of billing, charging and customer management systems with more than 20 years’ experience delivering its solutions across a broad range of industries including the telecommunications, finance, utilities and transportation sectors.
