By Nick Jotischky

According to projections fromInforma Telecoms & Media, mobile telecom revenues will reach $1.1tn by 2015 with 40 per cent of this figure ($440bn) coming from data services. The pressure on carriers to maximise returns from data revenues is therefore becoming intense.

Research commissioned by Motricity, a leading mobile marketing, advertising and data services company, reflects the findings of a survey run by Informa, which suggests that a growing number of carriers are interested in moving to a managed service model for data offerings.

From the results of a global online survey sent out to mobile, fixed and converged carriers globally, and interviews conducted with carriers in the Asia Pacific region, many operators see the managed service model as a way of managing risk effectively and being able to focus more on their core business. Risk management comes from limiting the upfront investment in infrastructure and being able to launch services more quickly. With the core competence of carriers not necessarily the development, delivery and management of services and applications, outsourcing such services can also give the operator more time to implement more directly customer-facing activities.

Key survey findings include:

In the course of carrying out this research, it was interesting to note a common thread from operators – the need to launch new services within increasingly rapid deployment cycles but at the same time managing opex tightly. Quite a trick to pull off.  And one that makes the potential selection and management of a managed service supplier an even more strategic decision.