patterns 63 Equipment Manufacturers Telcos such as France Telecom, KPN, and Vodafone have outsourced operation and maintenance of some of their networks to equipment manufacturers such as Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, and Ericsson. Equipment manufac- turers can run the networks at lower cost because they service several telcos at a time and thus benefi t from economies of scale. Unbundled Telco After unbundling its infrastructure business, a telco can sharpen its focus on branding and segmenting customers and services. Customer relationships comprise its key asset and its core business. By concentrating on customers and increasing share of wallet with current subscribers, it can leverage invest- ments made over the years acquiring and retaining customers. One of the fi rst mobile telcos to pursue strategic unbundling was Bharti Airtel, now one of India’s leading telcos. It outsourced network operations to Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks and IT infrastructure to IBM, allowing the company to focus on its core competency: building Customer Relationships. Content Providers For product and service innovation, the unbundled telco can turn to smaller, creative fi rms. Innovation requires creative talent, which smaller and more dynamic organizations typically do a better job of attracting. Telcos work with multiple third-parties that assure a constant supply of new technologies, services, and media content such as mapping, games, video, and music. Two examples are Mobilizy of Austria and Sweden’s tat. Mobilizy focuses on location-based service solutions for smartphones (it developed a popular mobile travel guide), and tat concentrates on creating advanced mobile user interfaces. r&d new products & services telcos intel- lectual property licensing fees network operators voice data content acquisition retention installed customer base brand customer base retail marketing service revenues network maintenance services provisioning network infrastruc- ture operation & maintenance telcos network economies of scale Customer Relationship unbundling business patterns bmgen_final.indd 63 6/15/10 5:33 PM