The telecom industry is at the edge of a major paradigm shift and moving closer to IT industry practices and scale economies. This is driven by digitization of all things and follows quickly on the heels of 4G network deployments and the recognition that mobile broadband networks are essentially distributed supercomputers. SDN will sweep through the IT industry and set the stage for SDN/NFV to transform the telecom mobile broadband industry. ABI Research’s view is a virtualized telecom market of $5 billion to $6 billion by 2018.
This report investigates the issues that operators and equipment vendors face, market timing and forecast for the mobile telecom industry. Different parts of the network with virtualize sooner than others and the various considerations are accounted. SDN and NFV for telecom is analyzed within the framework of disruptive or sustaining innovation, with findings discussed and presented. Strategies for the telecom operator, the incumbent infrastructure vendor, and the disruptive innovator are considered.