Network services market - 21st May 2005

Network services market:

Lucent and Ericsson were up to now the main vendors reporting strong inroads in the network services market. Both have established well-advertised units and gained large orders. Nokia has established its own unit in February and reported that 25% of its telecom infrastructure revenues in 2004 was made of network services, a size close to Lucent and Ericsson's performance.

With a telecom infrastructure equipment market expected to report only single-digit growth in 2005, the network services market could provide a better opportunity. Systems integration and managing networks are the two largest and fastest-growing market segments. Outsourcing is already important, but will develop in next few years. Operators in developed countries are looking for partners helping them to cut costs and run their assets more efficiently, while operators in developing countries need help to keep up with tremendous subscriber growth. Such opportunities are not limited to telecom vendors and have attracted IT vendors too. HP, IBM are among the most active.