Network outsourcing deals grow 8%

By the end of 2010, telecom service providers worldwide will have outsourced about $53.5 billion (€40.7 billion) worth of networking tasks to equipment vendors, Infonetics Research predicts.
 
The figure is up by 8% on 2009, and could result in firms including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei running three-quarters of the world’s networks, due to a raft of major outsourcing deals in the pipeline.
 
"Fierce competition among telecom service providers around the world is driving them to increase operating expenses, and that in turn is forcing service providers to outsource more of their network tasks, because outsourcing is one of the last remaining ways to cut opex," said Stéphane Téral, Infonetics Research's principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure.
 
Also, mobile network outsourcing is growing much faster than wireline outsourcing, the research firm said.
 
Infonetics expects that mobile network outsourcing will account for 61% of all network outsourcing by 2014. In 2008, revenue from mobile and fixed network outsourcing was roughly the same.
 
The major growth areas for telecom network outsourcing include network maintenance, planning, design, and operations
 

Much of the growth in outsourced services is coming from EMEA, Asia Pacific and, to a lesser extent, Central and Latin America.