The survey of over 100 CSP representatives from 29 countries, conducted at WeDo’s Sixth Annual Worldwide User Group Meeting and 10th Anniversary Celebration in Portugal last month, uncovered that 32% believe M2M will positively influence bottom lines, while 25% thought that personal and/or business cloud services would be the technology that would defibrillate failing revenues.
The much hyped mobile money was the choice of 22% of CSPs as an impactful technology, while 17% of operators thought that on demand content would have an effect on their businesses in the coming two years.
Despite mass coverage in the media, and its undoubted potential, mobile advertising scored low in the survey, with only five per cent of respondents choosing it as a technology that will make a positive mark in the next two years.
The research also confirmed the fact that the appearance of over the top (OTT) players, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, in the market has shaken up competition among CSPs, and forced them to consider new business models to negotiate the threat they pose.
However, the good news is that an overwhelming majority of CSP respondents, 70%, agreed they would cooperate with each other over the coming two years to face down the threat that OTT players pose.