Finding Services and Business Models for the Next-Generation Networks

The evolution of the telecommunication networks

Communication technologies have become the most ubiquitous service during the last decades. Among these technologies, mobile technology has become one of the fastest and broadest markets. Nowadays, billions of subscribers use a mobile device on a daily basis. Thus, the mobile telecommunications industry has nurtured an innovative market which has overcome the barriers of reaching every single person in the world.
Such barriers and limitations where deployed by the early lack of standards, which created boundaries within subscribers from different countries or even between different service providers in the same country. The first devices were based on early analogue systems, less flexible or able to be adapted to newer needs. One major drawback was their high cost, which moved service providers to bring competition and innovation into the industry. The tipping point, the digital era, allowed service providers to cope with their growing needs, allowing for better and diverse services. Nonetheless, digital communications brought major improvements into the transmission, switching and quality.

First Generation


Second Generation


Third Generation


Beyond Generation

Fig. 1. The network evolution

At the beginning of the last decade, service providers were competing in newer markets as the technology evolved. The competitive landscape was changing year by year, forcing service providers to capture bigger stakes from the value chain. From pure voice
communication, they moved into the data services. Based on the findings that SMS was a cash cow, service providers decided to expand their portfolio to think about communications in a holistic way. The fear of cannibalization among different services is not important, as it offers consumers comprehensive services, and the lifetime value of customers can be increased, CHURN can be reduced, and the overall value proposition of the operator increased tremendously.
With this idea in mind, service providers started working on the next generation network. One network that could cope with their service, and which offered a myriad of comprehensive services to increase the value of each subscriber.

1.