Will Cloud Services Save Network Opeators In Turkey

Having been in telecom sector for more than five years (I am still working in the local branch of a global mobile network operator), I have lots of friends from fixed and mobile network operators (lets call them F/MNO) and these days all of them are talking about how they are going to dominate the SME (small and medium enterprises) market by providing cloud based services as a sub domain of data services.

Currently (based on these talks), three basic services are defined in the "short-term SME cloud roadmap" of all local F/MNO's (some of them already provided):

1. Web site hosting
2. Email service
3. Storage space

Web site hosting is a clever but somehow a belated move because although the new Turkish Commercial Code declared that all SMEs has a company web site, this was set at 14th of January 2011 and 3 month period was given to all firms to make necessary processes. So the market for this opportunity is already occupied by local hosting firms (which also handle the design and update phases of the web sites).

Email service has similar issues with the web site hosting because these two services are usually provided as a bundle. So again F/MNO's, you are too late again.

For the storage service, the main problem will be the "trust issue". We are living in a some-how paranoid society, so it will be a big suprise for all of us if this service holds.

But what I wonder most is when we will see a network operator providing a cloud service that creates diversity. I think even a basic crm service (like a very simplified salesforce.com type application) will be enough to create this differentiation.

Wouldn't be great, if you can plug your usb modem to your notebook and reach your cloud-based virtual office within your browser anytime, anywhere?