Vodafone in IndiaThis story in BusinessWeek isn't hot off the

Vodafone in India

This story in BusinessWeek isn't hot off the press at this point. In fact, you might enjoy Om Malik's analysis as well. However, I find a couple of things that are particularly interesting at a meta level:

The article reports that Vodafone is pursuing this acquisition to find growth. Growth, ultimately, is growth in revenues, but it is also closely related to growth in subscribers because of weak network effects and scale/scope economies at work. Vodafone is by no means alone here. Having finally digested the expensive spectrum auctions of the late 1990s, they are finding growth relatively weak in their "home" markets (Europe) despite the rollout of 3G technologies such as HSDPA.

Are expectations of 3G-related revenue growth modest enough to warrant an investment of this kind?

Is this a useful model for a developing country? I.e., to invest organically in its infrastructure to the point of "viral" growth and then to consider a partnership with a carrier based in and industrialized country to complete the rollout?

Technorati Tags:
Vodafone, India, mobile, telecommunications, 3G

Martin Weiss

Telecom operators of the future

You might find this article, posted in silicon.com, interesting, especially in light of discussions of NGNs. Given the decay of access line revenues, operators will be forced to find new sources of revenues. On the other hand, check out this article ...

Are the views contradictory? If so, which do you think will prevail? How easy do you think it will be for operators to adopt a services-based orientation? Do you think that this will lead to a bifurcation of the industry into transport and services providers?

Technorati Tags:
NGN, wireless, Internet, telcos, telecommunications

Martin Weiss