Introduction
As mobile penetration reaches saturation point in developed countries, the last decade has seen operators and investors from the telecom industry increasingly been looking for new geographical opportunities. With significant room for further mobile penetration growth Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle-East are considered as regions with significant potential for growth and have attracted a great deal of attention. The African market appears to be most promising of all, with an expected growth rate of 66% for mobile revenues between 2009 and 2013. Some major players have already established a strong footprint in emerging markets. More than 15% of Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone revenues come from these regions and “emerging” operators such as China Mobile, MTN, Zain, Bharti and Telmex now belong to the top 30 biggest Telcos in terms of market capitalization. Emerging markets cannot be addressed in the same ways as developed markets because of specific local characteristics:
This implies specific strategies in terms of products (e.g. ultra low cost handsets), network deployment (e.g. infrastructure sharing, satellite backhaul) or distribution (e.g. electronic top-up). Greenwich Consulting has developed strong expertise on key telecoms issues in emerging markets through market analysis, strategic planning and by delivering numerous C-level business consulting assignments for leading regional players. Our most relevant and recent assignments include:
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