Telecommunications Industry Consulting and Strategy

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications

We help telecommunications companies embrace AI, agile, and bold new approaches for a reinvented customer experience and a reinvigorated business—while keeping costs in check.

For many telcos, the transformation in the world around them is happening faster than the transformation within. Tower companies—not telcos—are leading the way in shareholder returns. Digital giants—agile and global—are launching innovative services quickly and widely. New technologies, like software-defined networking and virtualization, are adding more vendors, more options, and more uncertainty to decisions about infrastructure investment. As the telecommunications industry undergoes major shifts, telcos must shift, too.

How best to do that? The answer lies not in outdated business or operating models but in bolder ideas, strategies, and execution. This means applying transformative enablers such as artificial intelligence and agile ways of working, embracing end-to-end digitization, and taking new—even daring—approaches to network excellence.

Our Approach to Telecommunications Consulting

We help telcos transform their business—and the services and experiences they provide—by focusing on eight imperatives.

Network Excellence. 5G and fiber networks are complex and expensive, and the most promising monetization opportunities are still down the road. We help telcos identify use cases, embed automation intelligence to balance network traffic and heal failures, and leverage advanced analytics to deploy targeted, cost-effective rollouts.

Data-Driven Customer Centricity. Using analytics and personalization, operators can tailor products, promotions, and bundles to the specific needs and behaviors of telco customers, creating segment-of-one experiences and securing revenue growth.

Next-Generation B2B. Small and midsize businesses increasingly need help upgrading their infrastructure and managing a complex new landscape of cloud offerings, software-defined networks, and connectivity options. Our telecommunications consultants work with operators to identify growth opportunities—and integrate these new services effectively into their B2B offerings.

Beyond-the-Core Opportunities. By leveraging M&A and home-grown innovation, telcos can build a portfolio of non-core offerings—in areas like security and smart home—and compensate for losses in traditional business lines. We help telecommunications companies pursue the plays that best fit their markets and customers, and build on the strengths of their assets.

Simplification and Digitization. Telcos worldwide are racing to digitize to address evolving customer needs, increasing competition and external threats. By digitizing products and services, customer journeys, and processes, companies in the telecommunications industry can unlock significant value.

New Capabilities and Ways of Working. Telecom transformation requires new skills, streamlined processes, and a culture of collaboration, autonomy, and flexibility. We help telcos adopt agile at scale, so they can respond faster to change. And we develop the talent, coaching, and upskilling strategies to future-proof the organization.

Balance Sheet Optimization. One savvy—and increasingly compelling—way to boost profitability is to unlock the value of infrastructure assets. Telcos need to explore models such as network, data center, and tower sharing, or to take advantage of debt restructuring and M&A.

Closing the Digital Divide. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of connectivity in daily life. But it has also revealed the great challenge—and extent—of the digital divide. Billions of people, in developing and developed nations alike, lack high-speed internet access. So, too, do many small and midsize enterprises. We work with telcos and policy makers to identify—and pursue—actions that can bring underserved populations into the digital age.

To help telecommunications companies achieve these goals, we combine deep knowledge of the telecommunications industry with expertise in cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.

AI at Scale in Telco

Agile at Scale in Telco

Digital End-to-End Transformation

Center for Telco Networks

This is How To Counter the Global Digital Divide
Connectivity has become a conduit to information, communication, education, and societal well-being. BCG has teamed up with the WEF and UNDP to help ensure that everyone has access to these benefits.

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Our Impact in the Telecommunications Industry

Our telecommunications consultants have partnered with operators across the globe to bring new technologies, new experiences, and new possibilities to telco customers. Examples include:

Accelerating Digital at Telstra
Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra, engaged BCG as a strategic partner to oversee all aspects of design and implementation of its digital transformation program, including radical product simplification, customer migration strategy, end-to-end process automation, new technology stack, and the deployment of accelerator squads to drive faster, higher-quality outcomes.

Getting Back on the Growth Track
After our client, a large Asian conglomerate, acquired a struggling telco, it partnered with us to transform its new division. The process began with a 100-day plan centered on five pillars: cut costs and focus on topline growth (through new sales, marketing, and portfolio strategies); redesign human resources (to better identity next-generation management candidates and retain critical talent); manage change; monitor progress; and—crucially—make performance visible, identifying the goals each business unit was responsible for meeting. Within six months, the telco was profitable—and better positioned for growth.

Closing the Digital Divide in Schools
Millions of school children do not have internet access, impairing their ability to thrive in their local and global economies. BCG partnered with the ITU and UNICEF on the Giga initiative to close the digital divide and equip every child with digital connectivity.

Our Insights for Telecommunications Companies

What Five Trends Mean for Telcos

To succeed, telcos will have to navigate a series of shocks and trends that will force them to revisit their traditional strategic approaches.

How Telcos Can Put Their Sustainability Promises into Practice

Telecom providers face mounting pressure to improve their environmental sustainability, but they’ve been slow to respond. It’s time to take action.

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A Faster, Better, Cheaper Way to Build US Fiber Networks

Telecom operators have ambitious plans to build out broadband across the country. To maximize the value of the capital deployed, they must implement the right strategies, processes, and tools.