Clifford Chance

The importance of building partnerships; Meeting the OTT challenge through collaboration; Integrating Fintech – from quadruple play to quintuple play; and Partnering for success.

Building partnerships

Convergence and the explosion of the mobile internet present opportunities for new forms of collaboration, bringing telcos together with non-telcos. Navigating these uncharted waters requires not only a flair for opportunity but also an understanding of how successful joint ventures are built – and how to mitigate the impact of failure.

Meeting the OTT challenge through collaboration

From on-demand video increasing demands on infrastructure to erosion of SMS revenues from messaging services, the advance of over-the-top services threatens telcos’ business models. Yet the transformations that have enabled OTT providers to flourish also open up opportunities for telcos to work together with emerging challengers to exploit new revenue streams and differentiate their services from traditional competitors.

Integrating Fintech – from quadruple play to quintuple play

To improve their place in the value chain, telcos combine broadband, fixed line, TV and mobile services into quadruple play offerings. Fintech solutions offer a means of delivering new financial service models in combination with online and mobile functionality, while leveraging telcos’ expertise in billing and collection. This may help telcos generate new revenue streams and better position themselves to satisfy the demand for all-in-one converged communications and content platforms.

Partnership and competition

Joint ventures often mean cooperating closely with existing or potential competitors. How will you deal with competition in markets or geographies which fall outside the scope of the joint venture? Where exactly are the antitrust law red lines you should not cross in agreeing the non-competes that underpin the scope of the joint venture? How do you strike the right balance in setting up governance structures that foster cooperation without unduly restricting your freedom to conduct your business?