Telecommunications

The growth in mobile money

As the telecommunications sector turns to a new growth agenda, mobile money services are becoming more important than ever.

The acceleration of mobile remittance services alongside new mobile payments highlights the opportunities for the mobile phone to redefine the movement of money by:

• Lowering costs
• Increasing convenience
• Reducing fraud

Interestingly, many of the most successful services worldwide have originated in developed Asia — where mobile contactless services are well established — alongside money transfer services in emerging markets such as the Philippines and Kenya.

However, opportunities have yet to be uncovered in many developed markets, where financial inclusion is higher and where there is a greater diversity of existing payments channels.

Ultimately, flexibility — in terms of policy approach, customer proposition and stakeholder management — should be top of mind for all players as the handset catalyses a more efficient customer payments experience, and one that brings with it greater advantages in terms of information richness and location sensitivity.

Discover how we can help you lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s mobile money solutions (link to about our Telecommunications services).

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Transformation

Telecommunications operators are facing a rapidly transforming business model. Monetising massive data growth is a key challenge for mobile operators. As value shifts from minutes of usage to volumes of data, operators need to target revenues from new services that tap into rising demand, and master a wider array of charging models to monetize these services.

Regulatory Landscape

Regulatory pressures and shareholder expectations require agility and cost efficiency. Uncertainty over regulators’ approaches to new market structures is undermining operators’ willingness to invest. It increasingly crucial for governments and regulators to adopt pro-investment policies to sustain the sector’s momentum and for operators to form workable stances on a range of issues.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

Though M&A activity has accelerated recently, its nature and risks have changed. Footprint control increasingly takes precedence over footprint growth, and political, macro-economic and regulatory risks are increasing. With the outsourcing of non-core elements becoming more common in African telecoms, the ability to sustain partnerships will emerge as a strategic differentiator, and effective management and implementation of M&A and partnerships offers significant operational upside to telecom players.

Our credentials

• Audit five of the top ten mobile groups in Africa by subscriber numbers.
• We serve all of the top 20 telecommunications companies ranked by market capitalisation; seven as auditors and 13 as advisors.
• Provide audit services to three of the 15 telecommunications companies in the 2011 Fortune 1000 list of the largest US companies. This equates to 73.9% of revenues audited.
• Leading Big 4 auditor in the telecommunications sector on the 2010 Russell 3000 list, auditing 29.1% of companies and 71% of market capitalisation.
• Our Global Telecommunications Center (GTC) addresses our clients assurance, tax, transaction and advisory needs. The center is a virtual hub that brings together people, cultures and leading ideas to help clients address their global, regional and local challenges.