The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals

Over 60 people attended the ITP’s networking breakfast, at Huawei’s headquarters in Basingstoke. Special Guest speaker Steve Haines (BT Wholesale Chief Operating Officer) gave his personal view on the status and future of the UK Wholesale market.

Please click here for a copy of Steve's presentation.

He broke down this £7 billion p.a. market into the big 5 mobile companies, a handful of major service providers and many hundreds of secondary service providers. All of whom chasing a larger share of a flat market while trying to reduce operating costs! Steve observed that this was being achieved primarily through companies consolidating and converging. This has led to a polarisation of traditional fixed and mobile operators outsourcing peripheral services. In turn, this has enabled organisations like BT Wholesale to widen their own operations by offering managed as well as “own label” services.

Steve concluded his presentation by observing that the smart operators will establish inter-company alliances that will (i) ensure that managed services work, (ii) enable new ideas to get into the market quicker and cost-effectively and (iii) create teams that can and will provide end-to-end solutions. 

Judging by the empty plates and the amount of chat that was taking place before and after Steve’s presentation, the Chinese breakfast and the networking were a great success!  Special thanks to corporate sponsor Huawei for providing an excellent venue and tasty Chinese style breakfast.