External study on the trends and cloudification, virtualization, and softwarization in telecommunications

This report documents the findings of the research in the project undertaken for BEREC by Plum Consulting and Stratix on the technology trends, market and business developments and impacts on competition and regulation of cloudification, virtualization and softwarization in telecommunications.

The objectives of this assignment were:

1.         to research and report on the technical evolution of electronic communications networks and services;

2.         to conduct market and business research and analysis;

3.         to identify, research and report on use case studies;

4.         to analyse business dynamics and future trends; and

5.         to analyse and report on impacts and potential impacts on competition and regulation.

The Deliverables for the project have been organised in two stages. A report was delivered to BEREC covering items 1 – 3 listed above in August 2023.  Consultant has combined that work with items 4 and 5 to produce this final integrated report. 

The approach to this exploratory study utilized a mixed methodology, combining desk research and stakeholder interviews. More than 20 interviews enabled to assess those initial findings against the experiences and expertise of stakeholders, to get their real-world insights, and help disentangle hype from reality.