Home - Key Questions - Fixed Communications: Section 1

Key Questions: Fixed Communications

Section 1: Questions regarding the incumbent telecoms companies and the new facilities-based operators

This first section relates to the incumbents (such as AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, NTT, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, etc) and the new facilities-based operators (such as MCI WorldCom, Vodafone/Airtouch, Qwest, Level 3, Global Crossing, GTS, Viatel, COLT and Energis) – see Industry Mapping 3 - Companies by Layer.

Question 1: Who will win: incumbents or new facilities-based operators?

Question 2: How will the fortunes of both incumbents and new facilities-based operators be affected by a capacity glut?

Question 3: How can telecoms operators differentiate their services from those of their competitors?

Question 4: Will the new operators need to develop in-house R&D capabilities to survive in the longer term?

Question 5: Are new operators backing the right technologies?

Question 6: Will the successful operators be vertically integrated or will they be vertically specialised?

Question 7: Will capital markets continue to give new operators preferential support?

Question 8: How will the incumbents organise themselves to compete?