Research carried out in the UK, France and Germany on behalf of telco tech company Telness Tech found that 97% of telcos pledged to make immediate investments to their back-end infrastructure within the next 12 months.
As part of the investment, 33% of the overall planned spend will be directed towards upgrading back-end infrastructure and 31% will be used for “better services for customers”.
Yet only 16% of telcos recognised a need to be more innovative while 97% were confident in their organisation’s ability to stay competitive in the next 12-18 months.
Sara Rasmussen, CCO of Telness Tech, said: “Despite heavy investment plans, it is clear from the research that traditional telcos have misplaced confidence in their level of innovation and ability to retain their customers.
“Telcos need to do a better job getting across to consumers the level of innovation they undertake, how much they are investing in their technology and what they plan to deliver by way of new products and services. ”
The research revealed that two thirds (64%) of customers revealed plans to leave their mobile phone provider with 49% saying they would switch to a brand like Amazon or Facebook if they could.
More consumers appear to be changing providers. 59% said they would consider switching if they find a better deal while 21% said they would make a switch for better connectivity.
Rasmussen continued: “The future is cloud-based platforms that allow telcos to innovate and constantly develop and deliver new services and pricing models. Consumers aren’t willing to wait around for a better deal of more interesting offerings - it's high time telcos adapted to this new reality.”
