Carriers' future

Ernst & Young unveiled a new report on “The Next Generation Gap”. Acknowledging the importance of NGN infrastructure in coming years, drew lessons from past strategies and emphasized on possible winning strategies. Carriers could be confronted with a revenue gap in as little as three years, if they do not move to NGN and offer new services. For them M&A is not the solution, it is rather deciding where they want to be in terms of branding and content, and investing in core business with clear roadmaps. Industry leaders see organic growth as a preferable solution. They can benefit of current financial situation, recovery from the telecom bubble, and less debts. Occasionally, strategic partnership and optimization of key strengths, with filling holes in product portfolios can improve their performance without jeopardizing their independence. Carrier positioning will be vital for the future and range from low-cost service provider with strong emphasis and optimization of their infrastructure assets, to focus on customer care, branding or innovation like MVNOs and a virtual operator model.