OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having largely ignored the cellular industry until now, IBM Europe has announced its intent to become a major player by supplying services and information technology (IT) infrastructure to the major cell-phone operators in Europe and the Middle East markets.
The company claimed that many existing mobile operators are becoming increasingly aware that they cannot manage the hugely complex IT systems needed to run a mobile network in the 2.5-generation (2.5G) and third-generation (3G) markets. The company, which wants to break into these markets, said it is prepared to offer vendor financing and work on a risk/reward basis and believes its background in providing highly scaleable billing and network management systems to fixed-line operators will stand it apart from its competitors.
However, the company accepts that one area it will not compete is with the more established players supplying the radio frequency (RF) side of the network. But, it maintained that many of the more alert cell-phone operators are closely examining the prospect of outsourcing all their IT infrastructure to firms with the track records of IBM. Projects under way with an unnamed operator are said to include the design, build and operation of a completely new IT network to support 3G deployment.
