Telco Core Competence and Outsourcing

If, 20 or 30 years ago, you had asked any telecom executive what a service provider’s core competence was, you’d invariably get an answer related to “we operate quality networks” or “we understand networking” or something of that sort. 

Today, you might often get an answer that continues to emphasize the ability to build and operate communications networks. The odd thing is that most service providers are “building and operating” less these days. 

Few have gone as far as Sprint, which at one point outsourced the operation of its core network. But it is quite common for service providers to outsource towers, for example. And compared to the sourcing of core technology today, as compared to the monopoly era before 1990, telcos outsource almost all their core technology to third parties. 

To illustrate, where AT&T once developed and built all its core technology using Western Electric and Bell Laboratories, it now buys almost all its core technology from third party suppliers. 

That includes operating systems, edge computing, cloud computing, billing and operations support systems and even core networks, according to a survey of 500 telecom industry executives undertaken by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics.

source: IBM Institute for Business Value 

Though the IBM institute was looking at service provider willingness to use third-party cloud computing suppliers, the general principle--more outsourcing--seems to  apply to all core network technology. 

Mobile operators now are open to partnering with hyperscale cloud providers to supply the computational power needed by virtualized 5G networks, as well as to supply hooks for customer edge computing. 

Still, one can see clear signs of outsourcing of operations support systems, billing support systems, IP multimedia subsystems for voice, video and text messaging, as well as 4G and 5G core networks.

The point: one might wonder whether the telco "core competence" is something other than building and operating wide area communications networks.