Research and
development
Telenor Research and Development is one of Norway’s leading research establishment within ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and an important contributor to innovation in Telenor.
The R&D achievements comprise future strategic long-term research, joint activities with the Telenor business units world wide, and collaboration with third parties outside Telenor. The research results help the Telenor Group stay at the forefront of its chosen areas. Telenor R&D collaborates extensively with leading research establishments – both nationally and internationally.
Telenor Research and Development makes an important contribution to Telenor’s value creation through strategic consultancy, innovation and improvement of existing solutions. The research and development activity is linked to new services, platforms and customer solutions across different networks, both in mature and emerging markets. R&D also carries out work on new business models and takes part in strategic processes in the Telenor Group.
Telenor R&D is regarded as one of the leaders in specific areas within European research collaboration and has the following focus areas.
Business Models and Disruptive Changes
Telenor intends to be on the cutting edge of understanding which sustainable
models can exploit the potential in the technological development - always keeping
ahead of the market. This R&D research unit keeps abreast of challenges to Telenor’s
international value creation, both as an established actor and as a challenger
in mature and immature markets.
Through strategic competitive activities the research unit Business models and Disruptive Changes analyse the intersection between the market and regulatory boundaries. The unit helps to position Telenor by preparing analyses and scenarios concerning new actors, relations between actors and central development trends in the industry. An important part of this is identifying the most important disruptive development trends that may impact Telenor and its surroundings. New business concepts and opportunities are analysed by developing and using quantitative strategic tools.
Products and Markets
The R&D research unit Products and Markets contributes to Telenor’s ability
to offer simple and user friendly products adapted to customer needs, to ensure
customer loyalty and increased ARPU per customer.
Products and Markets also develops existing services to improve customer experience and value. Based on technological possibilities and empirical user studies, this research unit analyses customer requirements in different markets, both nationally and internationally. It analyses possibilities offered by the terminal development as to enhanced customer experience, differentiation, adjustment of terminals, adjustment of segments and development of new services.
Service Platforms
Telenor needs common service frameworks and platforms based on open standards
to reduce platform costs and secure new revenues by supporting a multitude of
new innovate services and achieve synergies across Telenor’s different operations
in Norway and abroad.
Service platforms have evolved from IN (Intelligent Networks) systems and platforms into Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) that provide new features and capabilities. The major advances in service platforms is their ability to expose service capabilities to 3rd parties and Content Delivery capabilities that may be used for provisioning of multimedia content to e.g. mobile devices. These capabilities can open up for new opportunities to Telenor such as creating new content rich services or enable growth of business in cooperation with partners.
Network Infrastructure
This research unit delivers expertise and authority within mobile, fixed and
broadcast technologies to continue Telenor’s market leadership in its home markets
and to meet the challenges of international expansion.
R&D contributes to ensuring Telenor’s success in the broadband market by choosing the winning distribution technology and platforms for broadband services and by being a leader in identifying and choosing new technology for fixed and mobile access. R&D recommends methods to maximise capacity and achieve optimum efficiency of Telenor’s network infrastructure and seamless cross platform solutions with end-to-end service quality, security and mobility.
R&D also evaluates system solutions to facilitate and meet user requirements for services and content specific to time, location and terminal and is also experimental in trying out new technology in co-operation with business units and suppliers.
Telenor Research & Innovation Centre Asia Pacific The goal of the Telenor Research & Innovation Centre Asia Pasific is to ensure that Telenor is ahead of the competition in providing unique customer experience and go-to-market approaches. The R&I Centre will leverage its Asian presence to better understand consumer behaviour and preferences, technology and services, and partners in the Asian region. Both local and international experts will be engaged to ensure that expertise and competence are shared between Telenor’s operations. The R&I Centre will utilise Telenor’s Asia operations as test beds, in order to create new concepts and drive value to Telenor affiliates worldwide.
Telenor regards Asian consumers to be early adopters of new technology. Following a different development pattern than Telenor have experienced in Western Europe (fixed first, then mobile), Asia is already leading in mobile service innovation both in terms of technology and consumption.
The R&I Centre is fully funded by Telenor. After a couple of years in operation the staff is expected to reach 30 to 40 people, mostly recruited from the Asian region. Exchange of visiting researchers is encouraged.