Ericsson Leads the Market for Network Managed Services

When it comes to managed services in the telecom space, Ericsson is leading the race according to a new assessment from ABI Research. The company has released its fourth quarter 2013 competitive assessment for “Network Managed Service Providers,” which breaks down the $10 billion market and names the strongest players in the telecom sector.

According to ABI, Ericsson is at the top with 36.6 percent market share and more than one billion subscribers. Other top players include Huawei, with a projected 22.9 percent market share, and Nokia Solutions and Networks, which claimed 22.1 percent of the market.

ABI also named Alcatel-Lucent as a leader, with rankings based on those companies looking at the long-term picture and flawlessly executing their business plans despite a seemingly stagnant market. Implementation and market traction as well as innovation in the form of providing managed services for competitive advantage were also considered when evaluating the contenders.

“Network Managed Services is an extremely competitive and tough business where scale and execution are everything,” said Joe Hoffman, research director for ABI. “We now see Managed Services moving beyond outsourcing and cost reduction as service providers seek to deliver competitive advantage to their customers.”

Ericsson’s top position as a managed service provider (MSP) was affirmed last year by Analysys Mason, which ranked the company first in worldwide market share across a variety of segments like service fulfillment and delivery platforms and network management systems. The telecom powerhouse also made Forbes’ most valuable brands list last year, with a market cap of $44.08 billion.

ABI remarks that its managed services leaders all have long-standing presence in telecom and managed solutions. The companies have spent the past year making advances in their managed services automation and cloud offerings, while Alcatel-Lucent has combined that with helping customers achieve a competitive advantage. This has elevated the latter company to the leadership ranks and made it a formidable competitor to the three leaders.