According to Frost & Sullivan’s principal analyst, Sharifah Amirah, the Telecoms industry is one of the few industries which has a “strong leg to stand on and is likely to gain from the downturn” in the economy.
As reported by Sharifah Amirah, “enterprises will be looking to minimise risk and improve operational efficiency”. The focus on core competencies and reducing operational costs will open doors for IT and telecommunication service providers.
Rising unemployment rates and falling GDP growth are forcing end users to spend less money on entertainment and digital communication. “In light of reduced consumer spending”, the analyst sees “pricing as a short term priority for service providers. In the mid-term, value added services and innovative distribution models will be key to growth. While focus will be very much on surviving the next couple of years, sights on further horizons should still be retained. In the longer term three key themes will prevail – mobility, content and bandwidth”.
Sharifah Amirah foresees the industry moving towards ‘divestment, consolidation, collaboration and greater investments in research & development’. Service providers with strong fundamentals will survive the storm and transform into more streamlined entities. Sharing business risk and securing more immediate returns on investments will offer a basis for both vendors and service providers to monetise on new opportunities.
In term of the public sector, the UK government amongst several others has channelled resources towards digital infrastructure as a reboot mechanism for the economy. This would provide a stimulus not only for the ICT industry but will potentially see an improvement of digital public services such as e-health and e-procurement. On the whole, the outlook is far from gloomy.