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Five mobile trends to watch in 2008

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Author: WildC@rd

The January gloom has descended but mobile operators have less to look forward to than most as they face another year of declining ARPU (average revenue per user) in the more developed markets. This means there will be renewed impetus to push data services in these markets - to claw back lost revenue and get the most out of existing 3G networks. Gartner research director, Sylvain Fabre, told silicon.com: "There's a serious pressure on margins for the operators and it keeps getting worse. Then there's other stuff like Vivian Reding limiting roaming charges… so the life of a mobile operator certainly is not going to be as rosy and cosy as it has been for many, many years." Alexandra Rehak, principal analyst at Analysys, added: "There's really no more growth to be had from pure voice on the mobile front. So if you look on the enterprise side we're looking to see a lot more creative packaging of mobile data services for enterprises." Fabre predicts the year will see increased outsourcing activity and more operators cosying up by network sharing - as 3 and T-Mobile did in the UK at the end of last year - as they seek to shave costs to accommodate slimmer margins. He said: "I think that's one of the things we'll see more of: attempts to squeeze costs out of the operation and move closer to an efficient utility - like water or gas - which can make lots of money obviously you do that by doing larges volumes with very low incremental cost."
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