Price remains by far the biggest influencer on operators’ selection of network vendors, more important even than technical performance of the equipment purchased, according to data from the Telecoms.com Intelligence Industry Survey 2013.

While technical performance was a close second to price, vendor attributes such as market share and legacy relationship were rated by respondents from across the telecoms industry as significantly less important to operators.

Price was ranked as very important by 43 per cent of respondents and as important by a further 41.8 per cent. Technical performance was a long way behind in terms of the number of respondents who felt it very important (24.6 per cent) although it was ranked as important by a larger number (47.7 per cent).

The strengths particular to incumbent vendors, however, were seen as less persausive. Market share was given the highest rating by just 8.4 per cent of respondents, and felt to be important by 30.1 per cent, making it the least effective influencer. Legacy relationship was second-bottom, with 12.6 per cent of respondents believing it to be very important and 35.6 per cent important.

The data portrays a forward-looking industry. Product roadmap was felt to be very important by one fifth of respondents and important by a further 46.1 per cent.

The findings are positive for Chinese vendors that have historically proven themselves very competitive on cost. The data may reflect operators’ financial constraints in a difficult economic climate or a greater confidence in the capabilities of relative newcomers; or both.

Whichever, the vendor marketplace is clearly going to remain intensely competitive. The survey revealed that 67.5 per cent of respondents believe that the move to the all-IP environment of LTE will change the relative standings of infrastructure players, with well over half believing that relative newcomers have good chances of success.

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