The Business Case for
Opening the Network
Alan Quayle, www.alanquayle.com/blog

Typical Operator Business Cases
Strategic Operational
Copying

What’s Changed?

Operator’s Product Development Process
Find Budget
Market
Opportunity
Research
Identified
12-18 m
onths
18-30 m
onths
New product
Re-Launch development process
Launch

What’s Changed?
Expectations

What customers expect
6-12 mo
18-30 m nths
onths
4 month Weekly
s

Developer
Perspective of the
Initiatives

Business Case

Scenario Assumptions
• Converged operator in a mature internet centric
market
• 10 million customers 20:80 prepaid : post-pay split
• Year 1
• Silo consolidation across messaging, location and billing
• Service Exposure business creation
• Year 2
• Initial service exposure capabilities
• Call control, enterprise mash-up, presence
• Year 3
• Service exposure expansion
• IPTV, streaming, and quality of service

Year 1 Analogy based on Real World
Results
• BT implemented a service creation process
transformation project
• Identify and consolidate ‘common capabilities’
• BT measured the benefits by the number of people that
managed these common capabilities.
• 60% decrease in workforce, a reduction of >1000 staff.
• For the Scenario that would mean a saving of 500 staff
• Typically ROI (Return on Investment) within 3 months
• In a small operator, SDP improves an operator’s ability
to scale its partner management without increasing
headcount

Example Year 2 and 3 Services
• Communication enabled business processes
• Enterprise and Voice Mash-ups
• Content 2.0
• Presence / Location
• STB services
• User chooses model: Usage, subscription, ad-
supported
• Result: $40-75M revenue in Year 3
• Just from ‘key services’ anything else is jam on top

Critical Issues in Opening the Network
• Copy Smart – don’t copy dumb
• An operators business is not the same as Apple’s
• Don’t be a 40 year old dressed as a 20 year old
• Opening the network impacts all lines of business not just
trendy ‘2.0’ stuff
• Make business an equal focus
• Its not a ground-breaking business case for revenues
• But the strategic impact of doing nothing could be fundamental to the
business

We’ve been talking about it for over a decade,
but soon its the customer that’s going to decide
Utility Service
Connectivity Provider