Corporate Strategy
A top European mobile operator faced a quandary. Aggressive competitors were eating into its leading market share, while an aging network complicated the introduction of new products and services. Nevertheless, global experience showed mobile data services not delivering on their promise, and continued investments in broadband wireless seemed suspect, at best.
This company turned to SDG for help in setting a new corporate strategy for the 3G era.
SDG developed a comprehensive set of alternatives encompassing different network technologies, deployment timings, and product-and-service mixes for both Consumer and Enterprise customers. The evaluation addressed issues of service quality, scale, anticipated competitor moves, and services uptake associated with different investment choices. In addition, key enablers like handsets and data-delivery platforms were assessed to determine the level of risk for each alternative.
A detailed analysis of existing voice and data traffic was conducted to determine an optimal rollout strategy. Historical and other-market data were considered in developing adoption- and pricing-uncertainty inputs for the revenue model. Additional complexity of potential revenue cannibalization was also factored into the analysis.
The conclusion of the strategy effort was to pursue an early but targeted 3G rollout to preempt anticipated competitor action. The potential loss of existing business more than justified the requisite investment. A staged rollout focused initial deployment on high-traffic, high-value regions. The client retained SDG for program management, marketing, and services definition during implementation.
