“This increasingly constant demand for data has led large Western Europe mobile groups Deutsche Telekom - T-Mobile, France Telecom – Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone Group to show signs of improvement with expected fourth quarter earnings in 2010,” notes Maggie Sin Ying Luk, Research Analyst for Frost & Sullivan Europe, Telecommunications Research Team. The increasing trend in data demand is illustrated by the growing data revenue stream among these major mobile network operators. This data crave resulting from the penetration of the smart phone and other high-end devices, is leading these key Western Europe mobile groups to begin discussion of geographic expansion.
Ms Luk explains that “with growing mobile penetration, mobile groups are facing an intensely price competitive and regulated environment. In order to generate a diversified income stream, expanding geographic operations from Europe, particularly to attractive emerging markets, becomes one of the market trends.”
Both France Telecom – Orange and Vodafone Group have a large presence in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Deutsche Telekom Group covers a majority of European countries, while Telefonica has vast coverage in the Americas.
Maggie Sin Ying Luk adds, “Most mobile groups aim to develop and introduce new services to consumers and business customers.” Vodafone Group’s strategic focus in 2011 will be on Europe, Africa and India (where the demand for telecommunications services is growing rapidly), while developing new services and corporate segments. France Telecom – Orange will implement cloud computing services to reach a goal of generating 500 million Euros by 2015. They also hope to become the number one videoconferencing provider in France. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom Group will continue a nationwide installation of their 4G network. They also plan on introducing new B2B cloud services outside of Germany. Telefonica plans to capitalize on both the Strategic Alliance Agreement signed with China Unicom as well as their new partnership with Jasper Wireless.
The financial and performance analysis of the four largest Western European telecommunications groups is a strong insight for evaluating the trends of the industry in Western Europe. While revenue streams from data are continuing to grow, overall revenue growth remains stagnant. Geographic expansion and service diversification will open up new streams of income for mobile groups, but it will not be the solution to low profit numbers. “Strategies must be developed to monetize the data traffic in order to solidify the sustainability of telecommunications services providers and operators,” concludes Saverio Romeo, Senior Industry Analyst for Frost & Sullivan Europe, Telecommunications Research Team.