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NewsGlobe: Currents
BBWF: FMC about cost efficiencies, says Elisa
Finnish integrated operator not prioritizing FMC services
by Ken Wieland
Elisa, a fixed and mobile operator in Finland, does not see
fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) as a revenue
generator.
“FMC is not about new services, it is about
operating efficiencies,” says Kirsi Valtari, vice president of
switching and service platforms at Elisa, speaking at the BBWF
event in Berlin.
Soon to be celebrating its 125-year anniversary, Elisa has
undergone a radical structural reorganization. Only a few
years ago, Elisa comprised as many as 50 companies, serving
different regions in Finland, and each making separate
purchasing decisions with vendors. The IT and network
systems of Elisa’s fixed and mobile operations have now
been integrated and streamlined, but Valtari does not believe
that the company is ready to develop a more sophisticated
FMC offering, where different services can be accessed over
mobile and fixed devices.
“One of the big challenges for us is to manage the evolution
and lifecycle of the PSTN,” says Valtari.
In February this year, the Finnish regulator removed the need
to provide telephony services throughout the country using
PSTN, taking instead a technology-neutral position for
operators to fulfill their universal service obligations.
It sounds like the death knell for PSTN voice services in
Finland, as over 80 percent of voice call traffic already originates on
mobile networks in the country. (This is in sharp contrast to
Germany, where 80 percent of voice calls originate on fixed-line
networks.)
With little extra traffic for mobile operators to “steal” from
fixed-line operators through fixed-mobile substitution (FMS),
service differentiation through FMC could be a way forward but
Elisa has no specific plans to do that, even though it is
investing in an IMS platform (which would be capable of
providing more advanced FMC services).
Yet there is interest in FMC, particularly among
enterprises. “More than half of corporates have purchased, or
have plans to purchase, converged services,” says Valtari.
As in most other countries, FMC in Finland revolves around
bundled packages and dual-mode (GSM/WiFi) handsets.
Ralph-Peter Seraphim, executive partner at Accenture,
believes integrated telcos like Elisa (which have mobile and
fixed arms) are best positioned to take advantage FMC,
simply because standalone players have to partner, but could
take a more aggressive position.
“Incumbents must overcome internal revenue cannibalization
fears if they are to challenge the FMS success stories,” he
says. “They also must keep service intelligence within the
network, which is critical, if they are to provide USPs in the
long term. The network should not just be seen as a cost
item but a source of differentiation from the likes of Google
and Yahoo!”
Click here for complete coverage of Broadband World Forum Europe.
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