Page 278 - Performance Leadership

Chapter | 15

TELECOM PERFORMANCE

NETWORK

Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.
First phone call of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the
telephone (1876)

Market Dynamics in Telecom

The telecomunications market has gone through a profound transfor-
mation. In almost nothing does it resemble the market of 15 or 20 years
ago. In many countries, the telecom business did consist of large state-
owned (regional) monopolies managing landlines. The business model
largely consisted of two sources of income: subscriptions and selling
minutes of phone time. In most countries telecoms are now privatized,
public companies, listed on the stock exchanges. The shift was needed
to encourage competition and to create more efficient organizations,
offering better prices for their services. Many telecom companies also
acquired other telecoms in other countries, in order to expand their
business.
Telecoms have experienced a huge growth because of mobile teleph-
ony and digital subscriber lines (DSLs). In many countries there are
now more mobile phones than inhabitants. The traditional landline
business has negative growth, an increasing percentage of customers
and households do not have a landline at all anymore. At the same
time, new uses for the traditional landline “backbone” infrastructure

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