Demystifying the Delayering of Telecoms Operator Businesses: Outcomes and Prospects

"Delayered businesses will only show modest operational gains unless they start to behave differently from their former incarnations."

More and more telecoms operators are delayering their operations, but the rationale is a mixture of financial engineering and operational advantage. This report provides a taxonomy of delayering, a quantitative assessment of its impact and a view as to how the delayered model might evolve.

Information included in this report:

• Definition of delayering and historical examples of the process and rationales outside of the perimeter of telecoms
• Taxonomy of delayering among telecoms operators
• Financial and operational rationales for delayering
• Major hurdles to delayering
• Quantitative evidence from delayered businesses about the effectiveness of delayering and whether the process has delivered on the original operational rationales
• How delayered businesses might evolve, and whether the delayered market structure will be a permanent feature of the telecoms industry