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We are always looking
toward the “next generation,” but we also have to deal with legacy
infrastructure and the
economic realities of running a business:
capital investment, operations and maintenance costs, maintaining and
increasing market share, etc. In particular, there is a well-founded
concern about “future-proofing” investment in infrastructure.
Installing new telecom
infrastructure or upgrading existing networks is very expensive. Large
capital expenditures are needed at the start (CAPEX)
and, just as
important in developing a business case, there will be a need for on-going
operations and maintenance costs to be considered for the life of the
equipment (OPEX)
which can be similar or even higher than the up front capital costs when
added up over a long period of time.
There is a natural
desire to have some
degree of certainty
that what is being
deployed will serve for a long period of time, and not become obsolete
before the investment has been recouped. This is an especially important
consideration for developing countries which may have more limited
financial resources plus many demands on those financial resources from
other important and worthwhile sectors of their societies.
Where capital is
limited, regulators can have a positive effect through, e.g., allowing
infrastructure sharing, wholesaling of network capacity, and similar
meaures.
Ericsson President and
CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg noted at the Mobile World Congress in
Barcelona, February 2009, that “... (telecom) investments can have a
direct impact on GDP and ... that for every USD investment in broadband,
the economy sees a tenfold return.” Today, mobile communication is as
essential to any nation’s infrastructure as water, transportation or
electricity.
An important aspect in
the business of mobile telecommunications is
understanding deployment options and opportunities.
This area has been addressed in some depth in the work of
ITU-D Study Group 2. |
