Outsourcing gains popularity; quad-play a competitive driver in France

Outsourcing rises: Telecommunications service providers are increasingly turning to outsourcing as a solution to ever-increasing operating costs, a study from Infonetics Innovation finds. By the end of 2010, service providers had outsourced $53.5 billion worth of networking tasks to equipment vendors, 8 percent more than they outsourced in 2009. "With major outsourcing deals looming, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, and Huawei may end up running three-quarters of the networks on this planet," notes Stéphane Téral, Infonetics Technology's principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure. News release.

ICT services climb steadily: In a similar vein, Reportlinker notes that ICT services earnings are rising steadily, increasing 5.7 percent in 3Q 2010 compared to the same period a year before. The study looked at 30 ICT vendors in the categories of telecom-related infrastructure, software and IT services, and business process consulting. "Network infrastructure services grew by 11.2% during SITS and business process consulting grew by 4.7% and 3.5%, respectively. The telecom vertical grew 12%, during government & education fell another 4% on top of a 3% decline in 2Q10," the firm said. News release.

The big time in India

SaaS hits the big time in India: The cloud is poised to expand in India--as much as 43 percent in 2011--as small-to-medium businesses there increasingly adopt software as a service for improved data access among an increasingly mobile workforce, an AMI study finds. "Among India Internet SMBs," notes Kalyan Banga, Senior Technology Analyst at AMI-India, "nearly half have a mobile workforce and over one fifth provide telecommuting options to their employees. The need for anytime, anywhere data access is a key driver of cloud computing in India." News release.

FMC is the word: Fixed-mobile convergence is a key competitive factor in France, Pyramid Innovation finds, with triple-play services driving growth. Otherwise being in the extreme price competitive--France has the cheapest and most innovative bundles--operators are adding mobile broadband to their offerings to create a quad-play service for consumers. News release.