Telecoms expert Lars Stork discusses the evolving Telecoms sector in Africa.

The continued discussion on infrastructure sharing will certainly now be at the forefront of most discussions in the board room of operators and vendors, strategies for sharing among telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) providers are needed to offset an investment drought stemming from the deepening global financial crisis.Sharing strategies are increasingly necessary to ensure that operators can deploy their networks at low cost while guaranteeing that consumers have access to affordable services.
Now, more than ever, sharing strategies make sense as operators are forced to reduce the costs of network deployment as they compete for scarce investment funds. This is a forward-looking perspective in light of the current financial and economic uncertainty.
Such strategies include sharing civil engineering costs in deploying networks, promoting open access to network support infrastructure (poles, ducts, conduits), essential facilities (submarine cable landing stations and international gateways), and access to radio-frequency spectrum and end-user devices.
In developing countries sharing provides a significant opportunity to make the expansion of their networks more affordable to rural and under-served areas. Many developed countries are looking at sharing to reduce the cost of rolling out ultra high-speed broadband networks that reach customers’ homes and apartment buildings.
Other steps are: adopting rules to provide for infrastructure sharing, particularly “passive” sharing of towers, ducts, rights-of-way and other support facilities; overhauling and streamlining cross-agency processes to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for various network-related activities , such as land management, site maintenance, pooling fuel delivery, environmental and safety permits; and adding innovative spectrum management mechanisms that promote increased sharing and efficient use of spectrum.
Other key steps for transforming the way of doing business relates to outsourcing or the move to vendor managed services in areas such as networks, call centers, supply chain, distribution, financial accounting, procurement not to mention the opportunity to simplify in-country operations for African or regional shared competence and or service centers. These options need to be scrutinized and the business model re-evaluated accordingly.
Vendors such as Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens and others now need to work much closer with operators through back- and front end integration, the boundaries is changing, and each component in the value chain needs re-evaluation.

By Lars Stork

http://www.futureafrica.eu

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Tags: crisis management, foreign aid, global financial crisis, telecoms operators

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