Multinational companies are putting mobile data first
on their shopping list for telecoms services but express concern
that the high cost of mobile data plans could limit their rollout
of services to employees, according to new research from
Ovum.
In the new report from the global advisory and consulting firm,
the top three
budget priorities for CIOs at large enterprises are mobile data, IP
convergence, and overall cost management. However, there are
signs that budgets are being directed towards mobile data in
particular. The CIOs also wanted mobile operators to improve
billing and usage reporting.
Ovum suggests that more companies are moving from talking about
fixed-mobile convergence as a concept to undertaking practical
integration projects. As a result, it expects MNCs spending on
mobile data to increase faster than any of the telecoms services
they buy. Balanced over all areas of expenditure though, Ovum
forecasts telecoms budgets to change little over the coming
year.
However, nearly three quarters (71%) of the survey expect mobile
data budgets to increase significantly over the same period. That
said, mobile data traffic is predicted to grow much more quickly
than budgets; the companies anticipate that their service providers
will come up with increasingly competitive deals, especially
internationally.
Cost management remains a major area of concern for all telecoms
services. Even though, many MNCs have had success in bringing core
fixed voice and data network costs under control, there are still
issues around the cost of provision in less developed countries. As
expected, with multinationals it is the cost of mobile (and,
increasingly mobile data) that needs most attention.
This need for greater visibility and control of mobile costs is
seen as a barrier to greater acceptance and usage of mobile data
applications and convergence. Ovum reports that the uptake of
mobile data services has been fairly slow in multinationals to
date.