Fast growing business opportunities in Asia will attract the attention of international telecom operators which have historically overlooked the market, research suggests.
Global telecom providers from the US and Europe currently generate a paltry 3% of their enterprise deal revenue from Asia, an Ovum report shows. For market leader BT Global Services, this is only 2%.
But that is about to change, according to principal analyst David Molony. “The big five US and European-owned global service providers have woken up to the new business opportunity the Asia-Pacific region offers them,” he said.
But he added that the companies will need to redouble their efforts if they hope to do more than scratch the surface.
The chief reason for the historic lack of attention paid to the APAC market is that the region has not bred as many multinational corporations as North America and Europe, the report finds.
But as this situation changes, there will be significant demand for international telcos to exploit, Molony said.
Asia-Pacific multinational companies will be “in a hurry to grow their global business operations and reach new markets in developed territories, [so] will need fast-developing network and service support,” Molony said.
Due to market fragmentation, regulatory complications and a lack of owned infrastructure in the region, international telcos have also traditionally grown used to targeting demand through local providers.
But the companies are increasingly making investments in their own infrastructure, and will likely seek to go it alone more as the market opportunity expands. This could prove bad news for their local partners.